VxRail licensing
When we purchase a VxRail cluster (a minimum of three nodes), the suite of software licenses bundle includes VxRail HCI System Software. The following VMware software is included:
- VMware vCenter Server Standard edition
- VMware vSphere ESXi
- VMware vSAN (SDS)
- VMware vRealize Log Insight
- VMware VR
Dell EMC software includes the following:
- Five virtual machine CDP licenses per node (E, P, V, D, and S Series) and 15 virtual machine CDP licenses per chassis for the G Series
VxRail also follows a Bring-Your-Own (BYO) license model. We can purchase a new vSphere license with the VxRail appliance or reuse any existing qualified vSphere licenses. The VxRail system supports several VMware vSphere license editions, such as Enterprise Plus, Standard, Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO) editions, and so on. This table provides an edition summary of all the supported vSphere licenses:
VxRail supports a flexible vSAN licensing option; the customer can order the vSAN license included with VxRail or applied via a vSAN Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) from VMware. The VxRail system supports several VMware vSAN license editions, including Standard, Advanced, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus. Figure 1.8 shows an edition comparison:
Figure 1.8 – Flexible vSAN licenses with VxRail; this information is copyright of VMware
A VMware vCenter Server license is included with a VxRail cluster. During VxRail initialization, VxRail Manager applies this license to the embedded vCenter Server.
Important note
Please note that transferring a bundle vCenter license to any vCenter Server is not supported. We prepare a new VMware vCenter license for an external vCenter Server if we choose the external vCenter Server during VxRail initialization.
With Figure 1.8, we can choose the different types of VMware vSphere and vSAN licenses on our VxRail appliance based on the required functions.