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VMware VSAN License Calculator

VMware Virtual SAN and its pricing model is now available. The pricing model is very simple and, just like the model for the hypervisor, based on CPU sockets. There is no feature, capacity or scale limit. VSAN has to be licensed on top of the hypervisor and the whole cluster has to be licensed. This implies that you have to license each host in the cluster, even when it does not have any local disks and is only part of the cluster as a VSAN Agent. A more detailed description of VSAN licensing is available here.

I've created a VSAN License Calculator. Just enter the number of hosts and sockets per host in your cluster and it will calculate the total price of all required VMware products. It also includes a license cost breakdown which shows the price for each component separately.

vsan-vmware-virtual-san-box

Your use of this Calculation Tool is at your own risk. I expressly disclaim any warranty for the Calculator.

13 thoughts on “VMware VSAN License Calculator”

  1. add in the costs for servers with SSD's, a highly available 10Gb infrastructure, and cables/optics that are required for VSAN and these costs are crazy.

    awesome technology, too bad my company is priced out of it.

    1. I'm sure VMWare will compete with the big players like NetApp or their mother-company EMC: Costs for the mentioned infrastructure including SSDs are really high, too - evene much higher. And it's more flexible to upgrade standard servers than filers.
      In our case there is already a small 10 GbE infrastructure which can be expanded and we do have to replace our FC switches, VI hosts an NetApps, too. So I'm sure the price of vSAN is more than competetive to buying new NetApp filers for us...

  2. Regarding this line:
    "VSAN has to be licensed on top of the hypervisor and the whole cluster has to be licensed. This implies that you have to license each host in the cluster, even when it does not have any local disks and is only part of the cluster as a VSAN Agent."

    We consider about vSAN for our two clusters:
    #1 will be built by new hardware using Intel CPUs and local storage (SSD, HDD as required by vSAN).
    #2 will use existing hardware on AMD platform, no local storage.
    Can #2 get access two #1's vSAN storage to host its VMs, too?

    Thanks in advance for a reply or a link answering thins question!

    1. That's not possible. You can use VSAN with hardware that has no local storage, but it has to be in the same cluster.

  3. Thank you. Simple and easy to use.

    Question I had - does this calculate support/maintenance for the vSAN license? At first glance it doesn't look like it. I couldn't find support costs anywhere online so I'm curious if you knew if it was baked into the license cost.

    1. The calculator includes S&S. You can choose Support & Subscription Type:
      Basic (1 Year)
      Basic (3 Years)
      Production (1 Year)
      Production (3 Years)

      The price for support is mentioned at the detailed license cost breakdown.

      ..but these are retail prices. You have to ask you local reseller.

  4. Hi, just playing with your calculator which is great. One question, the total does not appear to be the sum of the detailed breakdown? Is there something I am missing?

  5. Pingback: VSAN for Service Providers - VIRTUALIZATION IS LIFE!

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