6.0.1

License Management and Reporting 9
vSphere provides centralized a license management and reporting system that you can use to manage
licenses for ESXi hosts, vCenter Server systems, Virtual SAN clusters, and solutions. Solutions are products
that integrate with vSphere such as VMware Site Recovery Manager, vCloud Networking and Security,
vRealize Operations Manager, and others.
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Licensing Terminology and Denitions on page 92
The licensing system in vSphere uses specic terminology and denitions to refer to dierent
licensing-related objects.
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The License Service in vSphere 6.0 on page 93
In vSphere 6.0, the License Service is part of the Platform Services Controller and delivers centralized
license management and reporting functionality to vSphere and to products that integrate with
vSphere.
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Licensing for Environments with vCenter Server Systems 6.0 and 5.5 on page 93
If your vSphere 6.0 environment consists of vCenter Server 6.0 and 5.5 systems, you should consider
the dierences in the license management and reporting between vSphere 6.0 and vSphere 5.5.
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Licensing for Products in vSphere on page 94
ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, and Virtual SAN clusters are licensed dierently. To apply their licensing
models correctly, you must understand how the associated assets consume license capacity, the way
the evaluation period for each product functions, what happens if a product license expires, and so on.
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Suite Licensing on page 96
Suite products combine multiple components to provide a certain set of capabilities. Suite products
have a single license that you can assign to all suite components. When participating in a suite, suite
components have dierent licensing models than their standalone versions. Examples of suite
products are vCloud Suite and vSphere with Operations Management.
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Managing Licenses on page 97
To license an asset in vSphere, you must assign it a license that holds an appropriate product license
key. You can use the license management functionality in the vSphere Web Client to license multiple
assets at a time from a central place. Assets are vCenter Server systems, hosts, Virtual SAN clusters,
and solutions.
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Viewing Licensing Information on page 102
You can view the licensing state of the vSphere environment from a central place by using the license
management functionality in the vSphere Web Client. You can view the licenses that are available in
vSphere, current license assignments and usage, available license capacity, licensed features in use,
and so on.
VMware, Inc.
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