A few days ago I was handed a 2-node ESX V7u3 cluster to take over operational support.
Essentially this system has been going since May 2022 (over 2 years) without anyone taking care of it.
After I recovered the expired passwords on the root and Administrator accounts (90 days expiry had long since past) and recreated the machine SSL certs (expired last May) I was finally able to get into vCenter and discovered that it isn't really a cluster...
The Evaluation vCenter Server license expired over 2 years ago. We do have a ESX 2-cpu, 32 core license (no expiration) which covers both hardware nodes, but no vCenter license. It was never purchased in the first place.
The guy who originally setup this cluster did so on the evaluation license and was unaware a separate vCenter license is needed. (He probably though that the ESX license would cover vCenter as well.)
So I'm now trying to establish our options. I've never been involved in VMWare licensing and I understand that Broadcom has radically changed direction. I find it very difficult to get a clear picture what is possible.
As I see it we need to either:
- Buy (belatedly) a vCenter license for ESX v7 (if still available), install that and re-instate the cluster.
- Buy a completely new license package (or subscription) for the current version of ESX and upgrade everything.
With the new Broadcom licensing structure/options I don't have any idea what licenses I would need in this case.
Can someone clarify this for me?
Use case for the licenses looks as follows:
2 nodes (HP Proliant 1 CPU, 16 cores each), iSCSI based SAN using a Synology UC3200 iSCSI storage unit.
To be used as a simple stand-alone cluster, with 8 VM's currently and will grow to approx. 14 VM's in the next 2 years.
We are looking to get a minimum of another 2-3 years use out of the hardware.
