HPE CloudPhysics - Simulator for Host Licenses FAQ
Questions:
- What are the immediate values I can gain from using the Simulator for Host Licenses?
- How are my current HOST and VMs used to estimate new hardware size and cost?
- Do specific Intel or AMD CPU features of new generation CPUs significantly impact the host sizing estimates?
- Why did my VMware license cost increase after optimizing?
- What hardware is included in the cost?
- What are the server models used?
- What is the HPE VME cost model used?
- Why is the HPE VME cost estimate not applied to my current servers?
- What are the cost models used for VMware Licenses?
- How does vSAN impact my size and cost?
- Why are all the options not available for some VMware product/hypervisor choices?
- Can I restrict my sizing to a specific set of VMs instead of hosts?
- I have an existing VMware ELA. Can my discounts be applied to the model?
- Where can I learn more about HPE VME?
- What are the VMware License Core and Host Minimums and are they applied in the tool?
Here are some of the frequently asked questions on the new Simulator for Host Licenses analytics.
What are the immediate values I can gain from using this analysis?
The new Simulator for Host License provides the following partners and customers:- Report on the Broadcom VMware licenses currently deployed and used in the observed VMware vCenters.
- Users can review the current VMware license consumed and the license available for each vCenter.
- Estimate the required VMWare license and cost for the current virtual environment.
- Provide a host consolidation estimate to quantify future CPU and ORE counts required if the hardware was replaced with a new host configuration based on the user’s selection.
- Estimate the future Broadcom VMware licenses and costs for the new consolidated environment.
- Estimate a future HPE VME Host License count and costs required for the future consolidated environment.
How is the new environment sized based on my configuration selection? / How are my current HOST and VMs used to estimate new hardware size and cost?
In its most simplified terms, the sizing estimates leverage a technology called the “BIN PACKING PROBLEM”(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_packing_problem) . The simulator quantifies the peak resources used by the hosts within the scope of the simulator and determines how many “Bins” are needed to accommodate the resources. In the model, both HOSTS and VMs are our resources, and the Target new server configuration is our Bin. First, we need to determine how many of the workloads will fit into the future environment based on the Peak Demand of the environment. This is more than the peak demand of each object, as each object may have a peak at a different point in time. This first pass provides an estimate for the initial size of the hosts. This estimate can be adjusted for new system optimization. Second, we need to apply an overhead factor for the hypervisor and its supporting services (vSAN, NSX, etc.) to increase the size of the solution’s compute and RAM capacity. This provides us with a base estimate for the future state environment. We do not increase the size of over-provisioned hosts or VMs, and we base the estimates solely on the observed resources. If the environment was undersized, we would still be aware of the CPU demand and utilization of the resources. Still, the future state will often have sufficient slack space to accommodate the additional demand required by workloads. In addition, new improvements in CPU and hardware can make up for many of these contention factors and allow the VMs to run at their demand level.Do specific Intel or AMD CPU features of new generation CPUs significantly impact the host sizing estimates?
Not directly. Sizing is based on CPU demand. Second, we cannot determine if an application or operating system will take full advantage of new processor technologies to gain a performance boost. Instead, we can only leverage the VM’s peak observed demand for resources. A VM that is using a percentage of its defined CPU resources will likely use the same percentage of the resources after moving to a new CPU, but the process may be completed sooner due to clock speed. This can be observed if you move a workload by VMware vMotion from one generation to a new generation of CPU. Until the VM is reconfigured to take full advantage of the latest CPU features, a VM will still use the same percentage of resources. It may complete its execution faster, resulting in more free resources in a host, but the rate of demand by the workload will likely remain the same. The same is true for a VM running at 100% CPU Utilization. If a workload can consume 100% of its defined capacity for CPU on an older generation CPU, it will likely still consume 100% of the available resources on the new generation processor. The key point is that it may complete its work quicker, but the total peak resource consumption is unlikely to change. In short, if a VM was only using 30% of its peak compute capacity before migrating to a new CPU generation, it will likely still use only 30% of its compute capacity after migration, but the time to execute may be shorter due to CPU cycle improvements.Why did my VMware license cost increase after optimizing?
In many cases, if you choose a large or extra-large host configuration and our environment is small, you may have excess capacity in your model from the new larger host sizes. To change this, select a smaller host configuration size that ideally results in three or more hosts. The increase in host count will not impact your CORE count but will provide redundancy and distributed architecture for storage and disaster recovery. Please note that the host estimate provided is an exact capacity model and does not estimate an N+1 disaster recovery estimate for resources since different organizations may have different recovery models in use.What hardware is included in the cost?
The model only estimates the current and potentially future Hypervisor license costs. It does not include any hardware costs for VMware or HPE VME. In HPE VME’s initial release, the software is certified to run on HPE ProLiant Gen11+ Server, HPE Alletra Storage MP, or on Private Cloud Business Edition (PCBE) hyper-converged bundles. The Hardware cost is not included in this software license estimate.What are the server models used?
When building the future state sizing models, the Small, Medium, Large, and Extra-large systems are all HPE ProLiant servers. Specific CPU models are not identified, as these may change slightly across configurations.| Size | Model | CPU Sockets | Total CPU Cores across all sockets | GHz | RAM (GB) |
| Small | DL325 | 1 | 16 | 4.2 | 438 |
| Medium | DL360 | 2 | 64 | 2.7 | 1024 |
| Large | DL360 | 2 | 96 | 3.2 | 2048 |
| Extra-Large | DL365 | 2 | 128 | 3.5 | 3072 |
What is the HPE VME cost model used?
HPE VME is listed at $50/Month per CPU Socket. For this simulation, we are using an annual cost of $600 per physical host socket per year. No discounts are applied.Why is the HPE VME cost estimate not applied to my current servers?
HPE VME is not a generally available product at the time of this analytic release and is only supported on HPE ProLiant Gen11+ Server, HPE Alletra Storage MP, or on Private Cloud Business Edition (PCBE) hyper-converged bundles. HPE may introduce new certified hardware at a future date. Please check the HPE VME Solution Briefs for any updates. While HPE VME is included with some HPE PCBE solutions, it is unavailable for general installation on current customer hardware. If this does change, the estimate is as simple as multiplying the CPU Socket count by the cost of the HPE VME License for estimates.What are the cost models used for VMware Licenses?
With Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, the company transitioned to a subscription-based licensing model, requiring customers to purchase licenses for 3-year terms, with the Annualized Contract Value (ACV) becoming the standard pricing metric. For a 3-year commitment, VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) licensing typically costs around $350 per core annually, with a minimum of 96 cores. Since Broadcom acquired VMware, pricing and licensing models have changed, so it's essential to check the latest information from Broadcom or VMware's official channels. The VMware license cost reflected does not include VMware Support and Subscription which can vary based on commitment/ELA. The following Retail prices are used in the annual costing estimates for VMware solutions:| Hypervisor Offering | 3-year ACV |
| VMware Cloud Foundation | $350/core |
| vSphere Foundation | $135/core |
| vSphere Standard | $50/core |
| vSphere Essentials Plus | $35/core |
| Hypervisor Add-On | 3-year ACV |
| VSAN Capacity Expansion | $210 per TiB |
| VMware Cloud DR w/ VMware Ransomware Recovery | $360 per protected VM + $842 per protected TiB |
| Firewall | $120/core |
| Firewall w/ Advanced Threat Prevention | $200/core |
| Avi Load Balancer | $5,695 per service unit |
| List price for a 3-year average contract pricing for the new offers | |
How does vSAN impact my size and cost?
vSAN is only available for VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation. For VMware Cloud Foundation, 1 TiB of vSAN is included per physical host core. For vSphere Foundation, vSAN is included at 100 GiB/physical host core. Additional vSAN Expansion capacity is allowed to be defined for capacity expansion above and beyond your current defined storage needs at $210 per TiB. This expansion cost is not included with the default calculation as it is assumed you have a capacity for the solution already addressed by remote storage.Why are all the options not available for some VMware product/hypervisor choices?
Broadcom/VMware has some very specific requirements for what add-ons are viable with each edition of tier hypervisor products. The following are only available for VMware Cloud Foundation:• VMware vDefend Distributed Firewall
• VMware vDefend Distributed Firewall with Advanced Threat Protection
The following are available for VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation
• vSAN Capacity Upgrades,
• VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery and VMware Ransomware Recovery
• Tanzu Intelligence (not offered in the sizing simulation)
• Tanzu Misson Control (TMC) (not offered in the sizing simulation)
• Tanzu Spring / Tanzu Application Platform (TAP) (not offered in the sizing simulation)
Can I restrict my sizing to a specific set of VMs instead of hosts?
The current Host License estimates are based on Server CPU Sockets and Cores, so the current hardware model is reflected in the current price. Since we are reporting the current state, the card was built upon the current server configurations. Next, we used the current host hardware peak demand and modeled the future state on the same environmental workloads. Since a HOST-based model also accounts for network and storage (vSAN) overhead, as well as hypervisor overhead, the solution was designed to model the future state by HOST. This was the only reliable solution to address the true capacity of the environment.I have an existing VMware ELA. Can my discounts be applied to the model?
The model does not take discounts or ELA’s into consideration and only provides the list prices of the products.Where can I learn more about HPE VME?
Learn more about HPE VME at https://www.hpe.com/us/en/hpe-vm-essentials.html Interactive Demo of HPE VME at https://www.hpe.com/psnow/ebook/a95a30e1-7f3b-4c68-b6de-7791310217a4?hf=hiddenWhat are the VMware License Core and Host Minimums and are they applied in the tool?
At this time, the VMware vSphere and vCloud Minimums are not enforced. It is possible that you could be selecting a subset of servers in your environment, or the cluster could be a subset of a larger license agreement. Please know that the minimum is defied by Broadcom VMware but are currently not enforced in the HPE CloudPhysics Simulator for Host License. Here are the minimums that apply to each VMware License Model from VMware:
With the new Broadcom VMware licensing, all vSphere SKUs, including Essentials Plus, Standard, and Enterprise Plus, use a per-core model with a minimum of 16 cores per CPU, and Essentials Plus allows up to 3 hosts with a maximum of 96 cores. Here's a breakdown of the key changes: |
Updated April 8th, 2025 Created March 2025
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