What VMware software is included in the VxRail Appliance?

VDS is included in the Virtual SAN license and customers get the ability to use it no matter what vSphere licensing option they choose.

All VxRail appliance models sold with the "bundled" vSphere option include vSphere Standard edition. Customers who bring their own license must supply Enterprise Plus which enables DRS load balancing.

Is the vSphere Edition included in the VxRail 60 model vSphere Enterprise Plus, or a lower edition?  In other words does the customer get the ability to use Distributed vSwitches and DRS load balancing?

Thanks Colin, that really helps.  So just to be clear, there is no way for a VxRail customer (any model) to get DRS load balancing unless the opt to use the "VMware Loyalty Program" and buy vSphere Enterprise Plus licenses separately?

Thanks,

Bill

Correct

Colin,

If the customer is interested in the "VLP" models, can they supply VMware Horizon "Bundle" licensing (which includes vSphere for Desktop which is the same feature set as vSphere Enterprise Plus)?  The difference is that Enterprise Plus is licensed per CPU, while vSphere for Desktop is licensed per user.  The use case is a customer wanting to deploy VxRail as a VDI cluster, and they have VMware Horizon Bundle licensing which already includes vSphere for Desktop (Enterprise Plus).

Thanks,

Bill

Bill:

After talking to the VMware team here is the best answer. The vSphere Desktop included in Horizon Editions bundle is licensed in such a way that it may only be used exclusively for desktop environments. To use this license with VxRail you would have to dedicate the appliance to VDI.

If the customer wants to run mixed workloads on VxRail, we recommend buying vSphere Enterprise+ which is licensed per CPU and then buying a Horizon add-on to run on top of that.

Colin,

Thanks so much for this response.  I also e-mailed the EMC Pre-Sales Support Center (PresalesSupportCenter@emc.com) and they gave me a slightly different answer ("No, the VxRail VLP (vSphere Loyalty Program) Appliance option allows customers to apply existing VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus licenses to their VxRail Appliances. Other License types will not work.")  Could you see if there is some official documentation to clear this up?

We deploy quite a few "standalone" VDI clusters using traditional EMC storage and traditional rack-mount servers, and the VxRail could be an excellent use case for a "standalone" VDI cluster for customers looking for hyper-converged solutions.  They would definitely want to leverage their existing investment in VMware Horizon View Bundle licensing, which provides the same feature set as Enterprise Plus, but is licensed "Per Concurrent User" (or "Per VM" in the vCenter GUI), whereas the Enterprise Plus license is "Per CPU."  I'm not sure how the VxRail Manager would handle this "unique" license type so that's why I want to make sure I get this 100% right before quoting to a customer.  I know this is "bleeding edge" so thanks again for helping get the straight answer on this one.

Bill

Hi Colin,

I have a question regarding VxRail Vmware License.

I am a partner of EMC and i am not able to find any software line items when i configure on myqutoes.

I just want to for every fresh installation what kind of license will be included with VxRail60 and VxRail120.

Thanks

Avinash

Avinash-

The VxRail Manager software bundle includes the following:

• VxRail Manager and VxRail Manager Extension for deployment, configuration, and management

• VMware vSphere® ESXi

• VMware vCenter Server™

• VMware Virtual SAN™ for storage

• VMware vRealize Log Insight™

Hi Colin,

Thanks for your reply it was really helpful.

However a final one. SO HCIA Software Manager includes the above bundle.

Thanks

Avinash

The only Item of vmware that VXrail doesn't include is Vsphere, you have to buy it, you may include in the configuration of the VXrail, but it is not for free like the VSAN or the VCenter