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ce n t r a l i z e d li c e n S i n g
In vSphere 4, VMware has redesigned the licensing facility. License reporting and management
are centralized into vCenter Server 4. Unlike VMware Infrastructure 3, there is no separate
license server that must be installed and monitored. Using the vCenter Server interface, you can
centrally assign VMware vSphere licenses, report on license usage, and monitor for license state
and compliance. If you upgrade all of your hosts, you no longer need a license server or host
license files. All product and feature licenses use 25-character license keys that you can manage
and monitor from vCenter Server 4.
When vCenter Server 4 assigns a license key to a vSphere host, the license key is copied to
the host and saved in a persistent format. In the event that the host becomes disconnected from
vCenter Server 4, the license key remains active on the host indefinitely, even after a host reboot.
Only a deliberate licensing operation by the user can remove or replace a host license key. VMware
recommends assigning all VMware vSphere licenses centrally from vCenter Server 4; however,
you can also assign license keys directly to individual hosts.
For more information on VMware vSphere licensing, go to www.vmware.com/support/
licensing.html.
vCenter Orchestrator
vCenter Server 4 includes vCenter Orchestrator, a workflow orchestration engine to help you
automate management tasks for vSphere either by using out-of-the-box workflows or by assem-
bling workflows using an easy drag-and-drop interface.
Workflows are reusable building blocks that combine actions, decisions, and results that,
when performed in a particular order, complete a specific task or process in a virtual environ-
ment. You can leverage the out-of-the-box library of extensible workflows provided with vCenter
Orchestrator to create and execute automated, configurable processes to manage your infrastruc-
ture. Or you can use vCenter Orchestrator to capture best practices within your data center for
tasks, such as provisioning virtual machines, backing up, and performing regular maintenance,
and turn them into workflows. vCenter Orchestrator also provides access to all operations in the
vCenter Server API. You can integrate all these operations into your automated processes or work-
flows. This will help you achieve consistency, standardization, and overall compliance with existing
IT policies in your virtual environment.
Orchestrator also allows you to integrate with other third-party management and adminis-
tration solutions through its open plug-in architecture.
vCenter Guided Consolidation
vCenter Guided Consolidation provides a wizard-based process for first-time virtualization users
to accelerate the server consolidation process. The Guided Consolidation service is provided as
a modular plug-in to vCenter Server. To reduce the overhead on the vCenter Server, the Guided
Consolidation service can also be installed on a different system than vCenter Server 4.
As the name suggests, Guided Consolidation guides you through all the steps of the consoli-
dation process:
Automatic discovery of physical servers
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Performance analysis to identify virtualization candidates•u
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