Rumor has it that VMware will this week announce some significant changes to their ill-advised and controversial vRAM licensing scheme that was announced with the vSphere 5 release. I should point out that, as of this writing, VMware’s site still displays the original vRAM entitlement information that has caused much uproar in the community.
Here’s what the rumor mill is saying (all values are per socket/license):
- Essentials: 32 GB vRAM entitlement (was 24 GB)
- Essentials Plus: 32 GB vRAM entitlement (was 24 GB)
- Enterprise: 64 GB (was 32 GB)
- Enterprise Plus: 96 GB (was 48 GB)
Further, rumors indicate that VMware will cap at 96GB of RAM on a single VM the amount of RAM that counts against the vRAM pool. So, if you have a VM that has 128GB of RAM assigned to it, only 96GB will count in vRAM calculations used for licensing purposes. With the original scheme, a massive VM was no longer financially feasible but this change brings thing back to reality a bit.
Again, this is all rumor at this point. If it actually comes to fruition, it will be a clear indication that VMware knows that it seriously blew it with the original scheme.