vSphere 5, the latest version of VMware’s flagship server and infrastructure virtualization platform offers a combination of functionality and vRAM entitlements in different editions.

Choose your vSphere 5 Edition to meet your specific business and IT objectives. vSphere editions are licensed on a per processor basis and must be used in conjunction with vCenter Server.

Prior to vSphere 5, the licensing model was still per-processor based, however at vSphere 5, all limitation on cores and memory has been removed. Instead, licensing is now per-processor with memory entitlements as follows:

In addition to the vSphere 5 specific editions, you have access to two additional editions if you are upgrading from vSphere 4.x:

vRAM is the amount of virtual memory configured to a virtual machine. This is the amount of vRAM each license adds to the available pool.

vCPU is the number of virtual CPUs that may be allocated to each VM when using virtual symmetric multi-processing (vSMP)

vRAM entitlements are pooled by VMware vSphere Edition, therefore all hosts in a vRAM pool must be licensed with the same VMware vSphere edition. It is possible to manage mixed environments of hosts licensed with different VMware vSphere Editions from the same vCenter, however this will create multiple vRAM pools.

vRAM capacity can only be shared among servers licensed with the same VMware vSphere Edition.

vSphere Desktop Edition is designed for licensing vSphere in VDI deployments. vSphere Desktop provides all functionalities of vSphere Enterprise Plus and unlimited vRAM entitlement. It can only be used for VDI deployment and can be leveraged with both VMware View and other 3rd party VDI connection brokers.

It is licensed based on the total number of Powered On Desktop Virtual Machines and can be purchased either stand-alone in a pack size of 100 desktop VM or included with the VMware View Bundle.

VMware vCenter Server provides unified management for VMware vSphere environments and is a required component of a complete VMware vSphere deployment.

VMware vCenter Server is available in the following packages:

• VMware vCenter Server Standard
• VMware vCenter Server Foundation
• VMware vCenter Server for Essentials kits

VMware vSphere Kits are all-in-one solutions that include multiple VMware vSphere licenses and vCenter Server, enabling an organization to quickly and easily begin their VMware vSphere environment.

Kits are available in several editions that vary in terms of scalability and functionality.
VMware offers two types of kits: Essentials Kits and Acceleration Kits.

References:

• http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-4-esx-vcenter/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vsphere.dcadmin.doc_41/
  vsp_dc_admin_guide/managing_users_groups_roles_and_permissions/c_managing_users_groups_roles_and_permissions.html
• http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/editions_comparison.html
• http://virtualizationreview.com/blogs/virtual-insider/2011/07/two-thumbs-up-vmware-vsphere-5.aspx
• http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf
• http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/mid-size-and-enterprise-business/features.html