As per Mach 16.2020 article, VMware announced new updated licensing model, i.e. one per CPU pricing model/Core based pricing.
it will require one license for up to 32 physical cores. If a CPU has more than 32 cores, additional CPU license will be required. The 32-core limit is designed to minimize customer impact given current core counts for most CPUs used in the industry. This change will seems to have no impact on the vast majority of customers since they use Intel and AMD-based servers that are at or below the 32-core threshold
Multithreading does not impact the core count for the purposes of VMware per-CPU licensing. Instead, core count is based solely on the number of physical cores of the individual CPU.
Here is a partial list of products impacted by the new licensing policy:
- VMware Cloud Foundation
- VMware Enterprise PKS
- VMware EVO:RAIL General Purpose Suite
- VMware HCI Kit
- VMware HCX
- VMware Integrated OpenStack
- VMware NSX Data Center
- VMware SDDC Manager
- VMware Site Recovery Manager
- VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
- VMware vCloud Director
- VMware vCloud NFV Bundle
- VMware vCloud NFV OpenStack Bundle
- VMware vCloud Suite
- VMware vRealize Automation
- VMware vRealize Code Stream
- VMware vRealize Network Insight
- VMware vRealize Suite
- VMware vRealize Log Insight
- VMware vSAN
- VMware vSphere
- VMware vRealize Operations Manager
- vRealize Business
