Monday, October 31, 2011

Consolidated server and desktop workload licensing failure

VMware View and a standard vSphere server workload deployment cannot mix. Separate physical hosts, separate vCenters. WHY???
If you have a SMB who wants to get their feet wet with both virtualized Desktop and Server workloads, you're telling them that they need to purchase twice the rackspace to have the same n+1 cluster setup. I can see large shops wanting to keep the workloads (and admins in charge of them) as separate entities, but don't make it a restriction. 


From VMware View 5 Licensing FAQ:
Q: Can I run other server workloads on the vSphere that is included in View?
A: No. The vSphere and vCenter components of the View bundle are restricted to desktop deployments. A desktop virtual machine is defined as a virtual machine running the following operating systems: Windows 95/98, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Business, or Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows 7.
The only exception to this rule are the components that make up the virtualized desktop infrastructure (View Manager, vCenter Server, another Connection Broker and/or any desktop management and performance monitoring tools used solely for hosted desktop virtual machine(s) within an operating system of a server).

1 comment:

  1. Just an update that right now you *can* actually do this legally, but finding the right person to point you to the correct SKUs can be very very difficult. The first or second person / document that you read might say that you can't have server&desktops holding hands..

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