This is something we have been asking for years and it was only available up until now in VMware View. We can finally connect a USB device to a VM running on ESXi. No additional licensing required!!!!!

From the What's New in vSphere 5.0

Could it be that simple? Well actually yes it is.

This is my host (in this case the free vSphere Hypervisor)

Here you have a VM Virtual Hardware version 8 (I was not able to test with Version 7 so if you would like to try and add a comment here - that would be great!!)

Add a USB Controller to the VM

You can choose either USB 2.0 or USB 3.0

And here is the VM Configuration after the addition.

After adding the USB controller to the VM, these parameters are added to the VM's configuration (.vmx) file.

After the machine has come up it now has a USB controller in its device manager.

In the vSphere Client I can now attach USB devices that are connected to the my computer to the VM running on this ESX host.

When I connect the USB device to the VM I get this warning - which is similar to the one you get when doing the same with Workstation

Once connected to the VM - it shows up in the Device manager and in this case also as a local drive.

And of course the details are updated in the .vmx itself

This opens up a whole new world of connecting peripheral devices to the VM. I do wonder though what it will mean to all of the companies that have created solutions that were able to solve these issues until now with a USB-over-IP solution. (Digi)

It would be interesting to hear what kind of use you could make of this new feature in your environment. Feel free to drop a comment below.

The first rumor of this was mentioned here by Gabrie van Zanten

The original levels were as follows:

As I mentioned on a previous post of mine vSphere 5 Licensing is (some kind of) per-VM licensing - VMware took a huge amount of flack from this. People were very verbal - very blunt and on the competition's side very, very pleased. The thread below has been extremely busy since the announcement, reminds me of the good old days..

The first sign of the change was with the announcement Update on VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) - where the mention of a maximum cap of allocated vRAM (reserved) to be counted - in this case 24GB

Then came along Gabrie's post and another from Derek Seaman

And these are the new entitlements

In my previous post on Licensing I explained where this would really hit people hard.

 
So how does this change help the Essentials customers with a the raise from 24 -> 32GB Ram per Socket?

In essence - not that much. The extra addition of 16GB of RAM will not help those who have already gone beyond the 64GB ram. But to tell you honestly - if you are already packing your server with amounts of RAM above that - then you should not be using the Essentials bundles - From a business perspective,  the amount of VM's (or the kind of critical VM's - i.e. High resource VM's) on such high capacity servers, should have much stronger features backing them which are only possible to get in the Enterprise and up editions.

And what about high density servers? well here there is a different story. Those with such big servers will usually purchase the high-end licenses. And in this case the potential damage caused by the previous levels has been alleviated. Most 2 socket ESX hosts I know are under 192 GB of RAM - so they should be ok. and the same with 4 socket servers - under 384 GB RAM.

I would like to stress on more time - these levels are not installed RAM but currently, powered on VM's allocated RAM

One more loud complaint was the free vSphere Hypervisor that was limited to 8GB vRAM.

Raising the limit to 32GB of RAM was the right thing to do. A small note, the physical limit is still in effect - no  more that 32GB of Physical RAM per vSphere Hypervisor.

My take on the change (and this is my personal opinion only).

This was either something planned from the start. The move to a vRAM model is the right thing. The entitlements were set low - on purpose - to generate the discussion - and get people looking at how / what their environments are using. After the idea had seeped through into our conscience then give the extra "present" of double entitlements - which covers I think more than 80% of the deployments out there - and gives the client the feeling of a win-win situation for both sides. Most people that have checked their current environments have come back with the answers that they would not need more licenses (and that was before today's announcement).

It also could have been a money grab attempt as has been said publicly more than once. But since the amount of loud feedback received caused some big-wigs in VMware to panic - and scramble with a more realistic solution that would not cause such an uproar.

If you ask me - the second option is not logical - I do give a company of VMware's size and market share a bit more credit.

Still - this did cause a lot of negative publicity, but more importantly it did something else. It took away the spotlight from all the great and upcoming features and improvements in the new release. And now that the biggest obstacle has been removed - VMware (and the virtualization community) can focus on the important stuff.

Just in time for VMworld!!

A last note regarding some things not well known about vRAM.

vApps - and Management products
vRAM entitlement - includes all the vApps - and mgmt products in use for example vMA, CapacityIQ, vCenter. These are counted  towards your vRAM entitlement. This is something that was raised to VMware to see how these could be removed and perhaps will be solved in a future version.

96GB Memory Cap
The maximum amount of memory that will be counted for a single VM is 96GB. That means the Monster VM is on! 1TB of vRAM will still only be counted as 96GB.

vRAM shared between vCenter Servers in Linked Mode
This can only be on a per-region basis. That means if you have a vCenter in the US and another in Europe - you cannot use both of these vCenters to as a vRAM pool. This is due to pricing differences between the different regions.

Oh yeah - and I hate to say - told you soo…..

Forgive the corny humor…

The free ESXi Hypervisor is no more (well at least not by that name).

VMware have re-branded it as VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi)

VMware vSphere Hypervisor FAQs

What is the difference between VMware ESXi and VMware vSphere Hypervisor?

 

VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the new name for what was formerly known as VMware ESXi Single Server or free ESXi (often abbreviated to simply “VMware ESXi”). VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the free edition of the vSphere production line. It is licensed to only unlock the hypervisor functionality of vSphere, but it can be seamlessly upgraded to more advanced offerings of VMware vSphere. VMware vSphere is available in multiple editions including several options specifically designed for small businesses.

How is the free VMware vSphere Hypervisor different than paid editions of VMware vSphere? How can I upgrade?

 

VMware vSphere Hypervisor is available at no cost in order to help companies of all sizes experience the basic benefits of virtualization. Granting free access to vSphere’s basic hypervisor functionality enables IT professionals to become familiar with the technology and prove its value in their own companies.

VMware vSphere Hypervisor can be seamlessly upgraded to more advanced editions of vSphere. Simply upgrade the free license to the desired upgraded vSphere license to take advantage of advanced vSphere functionally including centralized management, live migration of virtual machines, automatic load balancing, business continuity, power management, and back up and restore capabilities for virtual machines. VMware vSphere is available in multiple editions including two kits specifically designed for small businesses. A reason for moving to a paid kit or edition is that you could take advantage of the vSphere management server, called VMware vCenter Server, to enable centralized management.

What tools can I use to manage my free VMware vSphere Hypervisor license?

VMware recommends using the free VMware vSphere Client to manage VMware vSphere Hypervisor. You can use the vSphere Client to log into each vSphere Hypervisor host individually to manage it via the Graphical UI. You may also query the VMware vSphere Hypervisor host with the vSphere Command-Line Interface (vCLI). Note that the free VMware vSphere Hypervisor does not allow any configuration changes through the vCLI. You can also upgrade to more advanced editions of VMware vSphere to centrally manage your hosts with VMware vCenter Server.

Can I get support for VMware vSphere Hypervisor?

There are several free and paid support options for customers who use VMware vSphere Hypervisor. Please visit support for more details.

Can I run virtual machines created by Microsoft Virtual Server, Microsoft Virtual PC, or VMware Server on VMware vSphere Hypervisor?

Yes. You can use the free VMware vCenter Converter to import virtual machines that were created using VMware Server, Microsoft Virtual Server, or Microsoft Virtual PC version 7 or higher. VMware vCenter Converter also supports conversions from sources such as physical machines and certain 3rd party disk image formats. View the VMware vCenter Converter FAQs for further details.

What is the difference between VMware vSphere Hypervisor and VMware Server?

Both VMware vSphere Hypervisor and VMware Server are available for free. However, VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the recommended free solution for customers looking to get started with VMware virtualization. vSphere Hypervisor is an enterprise-class virtualization solution that offers the bare-metal architecture for near-native performance, features like memory overcommit to increase consolidation ratios and a cluster file system for managing virtual machine files on shared storage. VMware Server, on the other hand, installs as an application on Windows or Linux, relying on the operating system for resource management. This limits the performance and scalability. Virtual machines created using VMware Server can run on VMware vSphere Hypervisor, in some cases they must first be converted using the free VMware Converter.

Can I buy VMware vSphere Hypervisor preinstalled on servers?

VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the industry’s first hypervisor to be embedded in server hardware. Several VMware OEM partners and various system builders have already ship server units with the embedded vSphere Hypervisor .View the hardware compatibility list for a full list of the server models that have VMware vSphere Hypervisor preinstalled.

How do I use VMware vCenter Server to manage my VMware vSphere Hypervisor hosts?

VMware vCenter Server provides centralized management for VMware vSphere Hypervisor hosts and their virtual machines. To manage a VMware vSphere Hypervisor host with vCenter Server, you must have a vCenter Server Agent license, which is included in all paid editions of VMware vSphere.

What are the Hardware requirements for VMware vSphere Hypervisor?

The hardware requirements for the VMware vSphere Hypervisor can be found in our hardware compatibility list and setup guide.

What Operating Systems can I run on VMware vSphere Hypervisor?

VMware offers the broadest operating system support as compared to any other virtualization vendor. Visit the guest operating system compatibility guide for a full list of supported guest operating systems.