vSAN clusters are licensed differently with the per TiB, per capacity, and per CPU licensing model.
You can identify the number of per CPU licenses required for a vSAN cluster.
In a vSphere environment converted to VMware Cloud-connection based vSphere+ subscription, you can continue to use vSAN license keys. For more information, see the VMware vSphere+ documentation.
Per TiB License for vSAN
The per Tebitbyte (TiB) license for vSAN in VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation is subscription based.
You can apply vSAN per TiB license or per capacity license to a single vSAN cluster or multiple vSAN clusters. If multiple vSAN clusters share a single per capacity license, the capacity gets shared by multiple vSAN clusters. To calculate the capacity that you need for your vSAN environment, you need the total physical device capacity in tebibytes on all the ESXi hosts in each vSAN cluster.
For example, consider a vSAN cluster with 3 ESXi hosts, 1 CPU per host, and each host has 6 physical cores per CPU. For each VCF cores that you purchase, you receive one TiB of vSAN capacity. You must purchase the subscription capacity of 16 cores per CPU as it is the required minimum license capacity. With a total of 48 (3 * 1 * 16) physical cores per VCF cluster, you receive 48 TiB vSAN capacity.
| Number of ESXi Hosts (in vSAN cluster) | CPUs per ESXi Host | Number of Core License | Entitled vSAN Capacity (TiB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | 48 | 48 |
| 3 | 2 | 96 | 96 |
| 3 | 2 | 144 | 144 |
- If you assign a new license to the vSAN cluster
- If you add a new host to the vSAN cluster
- If a host is removed from the cluster
- If the total number of TiBs in a cluster changes
You need to purchase a vSAN add-on license if you need additional capacity. For capacity larger than the total entitled vSAN capacity in tebibytes, you can purchase additional vSAN capacity. When you purchase additional capacity, you receive a vSAN capacity license. You can apply the additional capacity you purchased to the existing vSAN license that gets shared by all the vSAN clusters. The vSAN clusters reflect the total raw storage capacity available. For more information about calculating the license capacity that you need for your environment, see the VMware knowledge base article at https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/95927.
VMware vSphere Foundation Capacity License for vSAN
The capacity license for vSAN in VMware vSphere Foundation is subscription based.
With vSAN 8.0 Update 3 release, you do not need a separate vSAN license to deploy the vSAN clusters with VMware vSphere. With the VMware vSphere Foundation license, you receive 100 gibibytes (GiB) of free vSAN storage per vSAN host licensed core. To calculate the capacity that you need for your vSAN environment, you need the total number of licensed CPU cores for each CPU on all the ESXi hosts in your environment.
For example, consider a vSAN cluster with 3 ESXi hosts, 1 CPU per host, and each host has 8 licensed cores per CPU. You can use up to 100 GiB of included vSAN storage per vSAN host licensed core. You must purchase a VVF license with the subscription capacity of 16 cores per CPU because it is the required minimum license capacity. With a total of 48 (3 * 1 * 16) licensed cores per CPU, you receive 4800 GiBs (100 GiB * total cores in the vSAN cluster) capacity.
| Number of ESXi Host (in vSAN cluster) | CPUs per ESXi Host | Cores per CPU | Number of Core License | Entitled vSAN Capacity (GiB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | 8 | 48 | 4800 |
| 4 | 2 | 16 | 128 | 12800 |
| 4 | 2 | 24 | 192 | 19200 |
You need to purchase an add-on license if you need additional capacity. For capacity larger than 100 GiB per vSAN core, you can purchase vSAN capacity per tebibyte (TiB) and apply a vSAN key that reflects the total raw storage capacity of the vSAN cluster. For more information about calculating the license capacity that you need for your environment, see the VMware knowledge base article at https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/95927.
You can use a Solution License to license all the components of VVF. For more information on applying the Solution License to the VVF components, see VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) Licensing.
Per CPU License for vSAN
After you enable vSAN on a cluster, you must assign the cluster an appropriate vSAN license.
Similar to vSphere licenses, vSAN licenses have per CPU capacity. When you assign a per CPU vSAN license to a cluster, the amount of license capacity used equals the total number of CPUs in the hosts participating in the cluster. For example, if you have a vSAN cluster that contains 4 hosts with 2 CPUs each, assign the cluster a vSAN license with a minimum capacity of 8 CPUs assuming the quantity of physical cores on each CPU is less than or equal to 32 cores.
The license use of the vSAN is recalculated and updated in one of the following cases:
- If you assign a new license to the vSAN cluster
- If you add a new host to the vSAN cluster
- If a host is removed from the cluster
- If the total number of CPUs in a cluster changes
You must maintain the vSAN clusters in compliance with the vSAN licensing model. The total number of CPUs of all hosts in the cluster must not exceed the capacity of the vSAN license that is assigned to the cluster.
License and Evaluation Period Expiry
When the license or the evaluation period of a vSAN expires, you can continue to use the currently configured vSAN resources and features. However, you cannot add SSD or HDD capacity to an existing disk group or create new disk groups.
vSAN for Desktop
vSAN for Desktop is intended for use in VDI environments, such as vSphere for Desktop or Horizon ™ View™. The license use for vSAN for Desktop equals the total number of powered on VMs in a cluster with enabled vSAN.
To remain EULA compliant, the license use for vSAN for Desktop must not exceed the license capacity. The number of powered on desktop VMs in a vSAN cluster must be less than or equal to the license capacity of vSAN for Desktop.
