6.7

vSphere Desktop
vSphere Desktop is intended for VDI environments such as Horizon View. The license usage for vSphere
Desktop equals the total number of powered on desktop virtual machines running on the hosts that are
assigned a vSphere Desktop license.
Licensing for vCenter Server
vCenter Server systems are licensed with vCenter Server licenses that have per-instance capacity.
To license a vCenter Server system, you need a vCenter Server license that has the capacity for at least
one instance.
Evaluation Mode
When you install a vCenter Server system, it is in evaluation mode. An evaluation mode license of a
vCenter Server system expires 60 days after the product is installed no matter whether you assign a
license to vCenter Server or not. You can set vCenter Server back to evaluation mode only within 60 days
after its installation.
For example, suppose that you install a vCenter Server system and use it in evaluation mode for 20 days
and assign the system an appropriate license. The evaluation mode license of vCenter Server will expire
after the remaining 40 days of the evaluation period.
License and Evaluation Period Expiry
When the license or evaluation period of a vCenter Server system expires, all hosts disconnect from that
vCenter Server system.
Licensing vCenter Server After Upgrade
If you upgrade vCenter Server to a version that starts with the same number, you can keep the same
license. For example, if you upgrade a vCenter Server system from vCenter Server 5.1 to 5.5., you can
keep the same license on the system.
If you upgrade vCenter Server to a version that starts with a different number, you must apply a new
license. For example, if you upgrade a vCenter Server system from 5.x to 6.x, you must license the
system with a vCenter Server 6 license.
If you upgrade the edition of the license, for example, from vCenter Server Foundation to vCenter Server
Standard, replace the existing license on the system with the upgraded license.
Licensing for Clusters with Enabled 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 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 8 CPUs each, assign the
cluster a vSAN license with a minimum capacity of 32 CPUs.
vCenter Server and Host Management
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