vRealize Network Insight supports multiple types of license keys. The vRealize Network Insight features are available for use based on these license types.

For more information about the features available with each license key, see Comparing Feature Based on License Edition.

vRealize Network Insight 6.0 is a major version that requires new license keys. After upgrading to 6.0, all license keys, except the NSX Enterprise Plus will cease to work. You can obtain the new license keys from the MyVMware portal. For more information, see the VMware Knowledge Base Article: 80358.
Note:
  • If you do not add the new license key during the upgrade, you get a grace period of seven days and also you see a warning message to add the new key on each UI page of the upgraded setup.
  • The warning message with the grace period will continue to display if you have replaced an older Advanced license key with the new Enterprise key. To deactivate this warning message, remove the Advanced license manually.

Advanced

Advanced license is a basic license type which supports a limited number features and addition of a few data sources.

Enterprise

Supports all vRealize Network Insight features and data sources, except VMware SD-WAN.

SD-WAN License

To add VMware SD-WAN as a data source and view your VMware SD-WAN deployment information in vRealize Network Insight, you must add an VMware SD-WAN license. You can add multiple VMware SD-WAN license keys to support edges of a different bandwidths.
Note:
  • With the VMware SD-WAN license, you can also add vCenter without IPFIX, switches and routers, and Infoblox.
  • You can add the VMware SD-WAN license as a standalone license, or you can use it with an Enterprise license. But you cannot use an VMware SD-WAN license with an Advanced license.

Assurance and Verification License

Assurance and Verification license is a device-based license allows you to view your network model for all the supported data sources added in vRealize Network Insight and helps you to design, manage, and to verify networks based on business policies.
Note:
  • With Assurance and Verification license, you can add additional network devices like routers and switches. But, you cannot add data sources like vCenter or NSX Manger.
  • You can add the Assurance and Verification license as a standalone license, or you can use it with an Enterprise license. But you cannot use Assurance and Verification license with an Advanced license. If you using the Advanced license, vRealize Network Insight does not stop you from adding the Assurance and Verification license. However, you see a warning message to delete the Advanced key on the License and Usage page.

License Usage Calculation

vRealize Network Insight license usage is calculated based on the following ratio.

Object Description Object count allowed per socket license
VMware vSphere CPUs

One software license is used on a processor with up to 32 CPU cores. If the processor has more than 32 CPU cores, one additional Software license is required for every 32 CPU cores in the processor.

 The licenses required is calculated using:

Math.ceil((CPU cores / CPU sockets) * (1/32)) * (CPU sockets)
VMware Cloud Hosts on AWS Total number of VMware Cloud (VMC) hosts 0.5
Note: One VMC host requires two socket licenses.
AWS vCPUs or Azure Total number of vCPUs of AWS instances or Azure (vCPUs) 18
Note: The increase in licenses from 16 to 18 will not incur any price change.
Non-VMware endpoints Total number of non-internet and non-VMware endpoints appearing in flows that are exclusively reported by Non-VMware flow reporting capabilities (for example, a netflow coming from a physical switch) 15
Note:
  • The number of network devices that you can add to vRealize Network Insight as data sources depends on the socket count that your license supports. For example, if you have an Advanced or Enterprise license for 100 sockets count, you can add 100 networking devices in addition to the object count allowed per socket license, which you see in the table.
  • vRealize Network Insight considers deactivated datasources also during calculation of license usage. If you want vRealize Network Insight to ignore them during counting, delete the data sources.
  • The VMware SD-WAN license key has a unit of measure as 'edges'. Different VMware SD-WAN license types exists for different bandwidth of edges. You must use the VMware SD-WAN license key that meets the bandwidth of your setup.
  • Assurance and Verification license key has a unit of measure as 'devices', which tracks the count of networking devices added as data sources in vRealize Network Insight. You can use this as a standalone license key, or can combine with the Enterprise license when the count of networking devices exceeds the limit of existing Enterprise license key.
VMware follows an honor system for vRealize Network Insight licensing, which means any violation in the license count, you see a warning message on the user interface, but does not restrict you from using the available features. You see a license warning messages on all the pages of the UI in the following scenarios:
  • License usage exceeds for socket (CPU) license.

    You must add an additional license to support your requirements.

  • Mixed license type
    • When you have added both Advanced license and Enterprise license.

      After you upgrade from the Advanced edition to the Enterprise edition, you must delete the Advanced license manually (Settings > License and Usage). Ensure that you have sufficient number of Enterprise licenses to use the Enterprise features.

    • When you have added a socket license and a core license.

      Delete one of the license types based on your requirement.