Vmware Licensing.

[murland1]

Hello,

I am running Vsphere 4 Advanced

I am very new to VmWare - I have sucessuffly virtualized our terminal server however when I went to P2V our application server I received an error to the likes of the virtual machine is using 8 processors and the host only supports 4. This made me question the licensing, I though the processor licensing pertained to the host meaning that since on my license sheet is says vShpere advance for one processor (Max 12 Cores) qty 6. Since my host is a 2 processor (with six core machine) I should be licensed fine for the host.

I am right or is it licensed for virtual processors? The only way I have fixed this is to revert back to the eval version and the error went away and the VM powered on.

Thanks!

[a_p_]

Your licensing is ok. ESX is licensed per physical CPU.

However the advanced license only supports up to 4 vCPU's per VM.

To support 8 vCPU's you need Enterprise Plus.

André

see vSMP Support on http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/editions_comparison.html

[murland1]

So since I am moving a physical server that has 2 quad core cpu's, can I convert it to only use 4 vCPU's?

[a_p_]

Well, very interesting question.

Since VMware converter doesn't let you modify the CPU count (maybe this will be changed in the future), you will need a workaround for that.

One possible workaround:

If the ESX servers are still in the eval timeframe (60 days), you could just remove the license key from the server. This way it will default to an Enterprise Plus version. Then convert your server and reduce the number of vCPUs to 4. When you are done re-assign your Advanced license key.

André