6.7

Solution
A product that is packed and distributed independently from vSphere. You
install a solution in vSphere to take advantage of certain functionality. Every
solution has a licensing model specific for the solution, but uses the
License Service for license management and reporting. Examples of
solutions are VMware Site Recovery Manager, vRealize Operations
Manager, vCloud Network and Security, and so on.
Asset Any object in vSphere that requires licensing. If the license has sufficient
capacity, the license administrator in vSphere can assign one license to
one or multiple assets of the same type. Suite licenses can be assigned to
all assets that are part of the suite. Assets are vCenter Server systems,
ESXi hosts, and products that integrate with vSphere such as VMware Site
Recovery Manager, vRealize Operations Manager, and others.
License Capacity The number of units that you can assign to assets. The units of a license
capacity can be of different types depending on the product that the license
is associated with. For example, a license for vCenter Server determines
the number of vCenter Server systems that you can license.
License use The number of units that an asset uses from the capacity of a license. For
example, if you assign a per-virtual-machine license to VMware Site
Recovery Manager, the license use for VMware Site Recovery Manager is
the number of protected virtual machines.
The License Service in vSphere 6.7
In vSphere 6.7, the License Service is part of the Platform Services Controller. The License Service
delivers centralized license management and reporting functionality to vSphere and to products that
integrate with vSphere.
You can use the License Service with newly installed vSphere 6.0 and later environments. You can also
use the License Service with environments that are upgraded from vSphere 5.x to vSphere 6.0 and later.
For details about upgrading the license management in vCenter Server 5.x to the License Service in
vSphere 6.0 and later, see the vSphere Upgrade guide.
The License Service provides an inventory of licenses in the vSphere environment, and manages the
license assignments for ESXi hosts, vCenter Server systems, and clusters with enabled vSAN. The
License Service also manages the license assignments for products that integrate with vSphere, such as
vRealize Operations Manager, and VMware Site Recovery Manager.
If your vSphere environment has several Platform Services Controllers that are joined through one
vCenter Single Sign-on domain, the licensing inventory is replicated across all
Platform Services Controllers. This way, the licensing data for each asset and all available licenses are
replicated across all the Platform Services Controllers. Each individual Platform Services Controller
contains a copy of that data and licenses for all the Platform Services Controllers.
Note Licensing data is replicated across multiple Platform Services Controllers on a 10-minute interval.
vCenter Server and Host Management
VMware, Inc. 84