VMware has been on a journey to simplify its portfolio and transition from a perpetual to a subscription model to better serve customers with continuous innovation, faster time to value, and predictable investments.

To that end, VMware recently introduced a simplified product portfolio that consists of two primary offerings:

• VMware Cloud Foundation, our flagship enterprise-class private cloud solution for customers to run their business critical and modern applications – in a secure, resilient, and cost-efficient manner.
• VMware vSphere Foundation, which delivers a more simplified enterprise-grade workload platform for our mid-sized to smaller customers. This solution integrates vSphere with our intelligent operations management to provide the best performance, availability, and efficiency with greater visibility and insights.

Now, as part of VMware’s Portfolio simplification, we are also simplifying the License and Entitlement management process across our offerings for our Brownfield and Greenfield Customers.

Key Changes

In the past, customers had to manage the individual licenses of the components that comprised our portfolio offerings. The latest releases of VMware Cloud Foundation (5.1.1) and VMware vSphere Foundation now support a single license key at the offering level, which effectively eliminates the need to manage multiple licenses at the component level.

This change represents the first phase of our Solution License Key approach. This shift streamlines License Management and Entitlement Access, as well as introduces a License Later Mode that allows customers to fully deploy VVF and VMware Cloud Foundation components while still in evaluation mode.

How Does it Work?

At a high level, Solution License Keys operate exactly as the name implies. They give our customers the ability to apply a single license key directly to the vCenter, which, in turn, activates all of their entitlements for either VMware Cloud Foundation or VMware vSphere Foundation.

Solution Key Flow for VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation Customers

The impact on Greenfield and Brownfield Customers who use Aria Suite Products

While Single License Keys can be applied to multiple components within VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation, the following sections focus on its impact for customers who leverage Aria Suite Standard within VMware vSphere Foundation and Aria Suite Enterprise within VMware Cloud Foundation.

Greenfield Customers

Customers without a Single License Key enter a 60-day Evaluation Mode. Using VMware Cloud Foundation as an example, if that customer does not buy a new Solution Key for vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus for VCF within that 60-day evaluation period, the associated components of VMware Cloud Foundation will move into Restricted Mode, which is our current License Expiry behavior.

Evaluation Mode Example for Greenfield Deployments in Aria Operations

However, customers who buy a vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus for VCF license key within the 60-day evaluation period and apply it to their vCenter, which has been registered as a data source in Aria Suite Enterprise, can take advantage of the entire suite of products, since the licensing takes care of the entire stack.

Brownfield Customers

Customers who upgrade to 5.1.1 software stack can still use their existing perpetual license keys as well as leverage new license keys.

Scenario 1: Perpetual and VMware Cloud Foundation Single License Keys

For existing Customers who are on VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 that also expand by purchasing VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.1, they can use the Aria Suite key delivered along with 5.1.1. This ensures they are not forced to upgrade their stack. In this scenario, the VMware Cloud Foundation Entitlement always gets precedence, but, if the VMware Cloud Foundation entitlement expires, the product enters the 60-Day grace period or falls back to Perpetual if that key already exists.

Scenario 2: VMware Cloud Foundation Single License Key Only

Customers who upgrade from VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 to 5.1.1 including upgrades to the Aria product suite can use the “vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus for VMware Cloud Foundation” single license key which would take care of licensing the entire stack. Going forward, the Aria products would refer to the vCenter license key for entitlement.

License Later Mode

The latest release of VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation also supports a new “License Later” capability, which allows customers to deploy applicable VMware Cloud Foundation components while still in evaluation mode. After deployment, customers can switch to a fully licensed mode by simply adding the license keys in the SDDC Manager User Interface (UI) as a component license key or via the vSphere Client as a Solution License Key.

This capability supports the following use cases:

• Creating a new VI Workload from the SDDC Manager.
• Adding a new cluster to an existing workload domain.
• Adding a new host to an existing workload domain.

Solution Key Workflow for adding new HOST to existing workload domain

Single License Key Use Cases for Aria Suite Products within VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation

The following section shows how to apply the Single License Keys for Greenfield Deployments of Aria Operations, Aria Logs, and Aria Automation within the Aria Suite components of VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation.

VMware Cloud Foundation Entitlement for Greenfield Deployments in Aria Operations

When a Customer adds VMware Cloud Foundation vCenter as data source/integration in Aria Operations and applies the appropriate license key for VMware vSphere Foundation or VMware Cloud Foundation, the Licensing page gets updated. At this point, Aria Operations’ License state will show as “Entitled.”

Also, Aria Operations gets updated to either the Enterprise Edition for VMware Cloud Foundation or the Advanced Edition for VMware vSphere Foundation, and the License Warning Banner disappears from Aria Operations Launchpad Page.

Solution Key Workflow for VMware Aria Operations

VMware Cloud Foundation Entitlement for Greenfield Deployments in Aria Logs

When a Customer adds VMware Cloud Foundation vCenter as data source/integration in Aria Logs and applies the appropriate license key for VMware vSphere Foundation or VMware Cloud Foundation in vCenter, the Licensing page gets updated. At this point, Aria Logs’ License state will show as “Entitled.”

At this point, Aria Logs gets updated to the appropriate edition, and the License warning banner disappears from Aria Operations Launchpad Page.

Solution Key Workflow for VMware Aria Operations for Logs

VMware Cloud Foundation Entitlement for Greenfield Deployments in Aria Operations for Networks

When a Customer adds vCenter as data source/integration in Aria Operations for Networks and applies the appropriate license key for VMware vSphere Foundation or VMware Cloud Foundation, the Licensing page gets updated. At this point, Aria Operations for Networks License state will show as “Entitled” and the License warning banner disappears from its Launchpad Page.

Solution Key Workflow for VMware Aria Operations for Networks

Conclusion

Solution Keys are the first of many steps that we are taking to streamline the licensing and entitlement process of our simplified portfolio of solutions. Expect more updates as we continue to make this process more efficient, convenient, and flexible for both new and existing customers.