Can you please clarify your "processor" and "core" definitions as they seem to run counter to everyone else. From what I see in the industry a "processor" is a physical piece of hardware that you plug in to a socket on the motherboard. A "processor" might be made up of a number of "cores".

VMWare VI3 licensing has always been per socket (or what I would class as per processor). So a system with 2 x quad core processors would require a 2 processor license not eight.

I've always used the terms "processor" and "core" interchangably. The term I think you're looking for is "socket". Multiple cores or processors can fit in one socket. VMware used to license by the socket, but they're changing that in 3.5 to by the processor/core. This is where my comment about many people getting "screwed" comes in, because they've paid for by-the-socket licensing, and now will have to 2x or 4x their investment just to maintain. Not good.

I think this does tend to get confusing. Processor and core should really not be used interchangeably since, although they show up as processors they share a socket (kind of like hyperthreading was logical but still showed up as a processor to the OS). I've asked our VMware sales rep to verify this information as this will have a big impact on us. We have moved from 4 socket/8 core blades to 2 socket/4 core blades just to keep the ESX licenses down in cost. Do you have links to where you got this information from? VMware's site is not forthcoming as I poke around.

Thanks.

I received a response from my VMware sales rep. Here's how it breaks down currently: You can have up to 4 cores in a socket before you have to pay more than what we have been used to. So a quad core 2 socket server will still only need a 2-CPU or socket license.

So that means as Intel/AMD moves to 8/16/32 cores we have to budget for more money for licenses. Of course by the time these higher core counts become ubiquitous virtualization will have become so common and competition so fierce that the licenses will probably be much lower than even now. We'll see-good times for those of who make a living providing virtualization solutions!

Thanks for this. The information I got was from an old account rep with VMware. I was interpreting from the slide I was given. This is apparently much better data. I'll keep researching.