vSphere Licensing - Doing Some Math
In a previous post I mentioned how VMware has changed their licensing model for the sake of increasing the adoption of the Cloud mentality.
This strategy is certainly no secret and can be read in their vSphere Pricing document at http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf. I recommend everyone read this document so that they can get a clear(er) view of VMware’s licensing strategy.
Bob Plankers did a nice write-up today about his environment and how the new licensing structure effects him. I will get back to that in a minute. I want to start with a couple of highlights from the official VMware document.
In the example provided on P.5 you see that the user has decided to exceed their available resources when adding more VMs to the environment.
VM Breakdown
20 VMs x 4GB = 80GB
5 VMs x 8GB = 40GB
15 VMs x 4GB = 60GB
——————————————-
40 VMx @ 180GB
“This would bring the total vRAM used to
180GB, more than the current vRAM capacity of 160GB (5 x Enterprise Licenses @ 32GB/License). The user
has two options to increase the vRAM capacity:”
Option 1
Buy one additional vSphere license of the same edition,
Enterprise. This would raise the vRAM capacity to 192GB.
I will note that this comes at a one-time cost of:
1* $2,875 = $2,875.00
With total memory of:
6*32GB = 192GB
The first method meets the need but only provides a small amount of additional vRAM capacity allowing for only 3 more VMs @ 4GB.
Total VM Capacity for this Environment
40 + 3 = 43 VMs
Total License Cost for this Environment and Cost /VM
6*$2875.0 = $17250.00 / 43 = $401.16 /VM
Option 2
Upgrade all five vSphere licenses to an edition with a higher
vRAM entitlement. Each license of Enterprise Plus is entitled
to 48GB of vRAM. Upgrading to Enterprise Plus would yield
a new vRAM capacity of 240GB.”
I will note that this comes at a one-time cost of:
($3,495-$2,875)*5 = $3,100.00
With total memory of:
5*48GB = 240GB
The second method is more expensive by $225 but provides more available vRAM capacity. At 240GB you will be able to add 15 more VMs @ 4GB as well as providing you all of the features available. The customer is going to see this as a no-brainer.
Total VM Capacity for this Environment
40 + 15 = 55 VMs
Total License Cost for this Environment and Cost/VM
5*$3495 = $17475.00 / 55 = $317.73 /VM
So far it is looking like the options are working out nicely for the customer in this scenario.
Growing yet again! Now Only One Option
Now what happens in this scenario if they have 60 total VMs (adding 5 new VMs @ 4GB each). This puts them at 260GB vRAM allocated and over their 240GB vRAM capacity. Time for new licenses.
Unfortunately it seems that their only recourse is to purchase an additional Enterprise Plus license to coincide with the rest of their environment. Let’s see how it changes their cost breakdown.
One-Time cost of $3,495 for an additional Enterprise Plus license.
Total License Cost for this Environment and Cost/VM
6*$3495 = $20970.00 / 60 = $349.5 /VM
This raises their cost /VM by $31.77 at current vRAM used (260GB)
Fortunately this also gives them 48GB of vRAM capacity to their environment so let’s see what that does to their numbers.
6*48 = 288 GB total vRAM Capacity
This provides additional capacity for 7 more VMs @ 4GB each.
Total VM Capacity for this Environment
55 + 5 + 7 = 67 VMs
Total License Cost for this Environment and Cost/VM
6*$3495 = $20970.00 / 67 = $312.99 /VM
This is surprising as it actually reduces the cost / VM as the environment gets larger.
Note that it really does not matter what your hardware is like as long as you have a license for each socket available. In this case you could have 3 systems with 2 Sockets and 96GB of RAM. You could have more RAM in the boxes but you would only be licensed for the vRAM capacity of 288GB
Now let’s get Crazy because RAM is Cheap
Where it really differs from vSphere 4
If you have 3 monster systems you could see the licensing as such:
3*192 = 576 GB
Despite only have 6 sockets you would need far more licenses to have a vRAM capacity of 576 GB.
576/48 = 12 Licenses
12*$3495 = $41940.00 (Double what is required for v4)
Total possible VMs based on vRAM Capacity
576GB/4 = 144 VMs
$41940.00/144 = $291.25
In the end you have once again reduced your cost per VM.
Conclusion
I know this is a ton of math and can be confusing but I hope it’s clearer that as environments increase the cost per VM will reduce. It is important to ensure that you only purchase licenses when you need them as having additional licenses will increase your cost per VM.
VMware has now leveraged itself to provide a very measurable licensing cost per VM that Cloud providers can then accurately charge back to their customers. In VMware’s eyes this goes for both internal private clouds and external public clouds. In the eyes of your leadership it doesn’t always matter where the application is, sometimes it only matters how much it costs to provide that application server. That’s the point and now we can anticipate that licensing cost.
