Esxi 5.5 License
Esxi 5.5 License Free
ESXi hosts are licensed with vSphere licenses. Each vSphere license has a certain capacity that you can use to license multiple physical CPUs on ESXi hosts.
Starting with vSphere 7.0, one CPU license covers up to 32 cores. If а CPU has more than 32 cores, you need additional CPU licenses.
I had installed a standalone ESXi 5.5, After booting up, I was able to connect the ESXi host in vSphere Client then assigned the free ESXi 5.5 license key successfully (Downloaded from VMWARE Site). Now the evaluation mode is changed and set to NEVER expires, but after a reboot/hard rest it has revoked the license and shows a evaluation 60 days.
| Cores | Licenses |
|---|---|
| 1-32 | 1 |
| 33-64 | 2 |
| 65-96 | 3 |
- My homelab consists of an ESXi 5.5 box, and an ESxi 6.7 box at home, and another ESXi 5.5 box in colo. (I get free colo at work, yay!) I was just given an R710 and two 610's which will allow me to finally migrate the 5.5 install in colo to 6.7. The 5.5 box at home will be repurposed elsewhere and won't run ESXi.
- Click “License & download” and login with your vmware user account or register yourself a new one. Under “License & Information” you will find the VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5 License key. If you came here looking for an ESXi VMware 4.1 free license key please see my previous post.
- VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.5 Download Center. Welcome to the VMware vSphere Hypervisor Download Center! This download center features technical documentation, installation demos and classes to make your use of vSphere Hypervisor a success. Looking for ESXi 4? Download it here.
- For your questions, yes you can use ESXi 5.5 license on ESXi 5.0. You don't need new license keys, you will need different license if you want to use ESXi 4.x As per KB: VMware KB: Licensing ESXi 5.x and vCenter Server 5.x.
- 5.5: No: The existing license key also unlocks version 5.5: 5.5 – No: This is the latest version: vSphere or ESXi (Essentials, Essentials Plus, Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus) 4.x: 5.0 or 5.1 or 5.5: Yes.
- ESXi hosts are licensed with vSphere licenses. Each vSphere license has a certain CPU capacity that you can use to license multiple physical CPUs on ESXi hosts. When you assign a vSphere license to a host, the amount of CPU capacity consumed equals the number of physical CPUs in the host. VSphere Desktop that is intended for VDI environments is licensed on per virtual machine basis.
When you assign a vSphere license to a host, the amount of capacity consumed is determined by the number of physical CPUs on the host and the number of cores in each physical CPU. vSphere Desktop that is intended for VDI environments is licensed on per virtual machine basis.
To license an ESXi host, you must assign it a vSphere license that meets the following prerequisites:
- The license must have sufficient capacity to license all physical CPUs on the host.
- The license must support all the features that the host uses. For example, if the host is associated with a vSphere Distributed Switch, the license that you assign must support the vSphere Distributed Switch feature.
If you attempt to assign a license that has insufficient capacity or does not support the features that the host uses, the license assignment fails.
If you use the licensing model with up to 32 cores, you can assign a vSphere license for 10 32-core CPUs to any of the following combinations of hosts:
- Five 2-CPU hosts with 32 cores per CPU
- Five 1-CPU hosts with 64 cores per CPU
- Two 2-CPU hosts with 48 cores per CPU and two 1-CPU hosts with 20 cores per CPU
Dual-core and quad-core CPUs, such as Intel CPUs that combine two or four independent CPUs on a single chip, count as one CPU.
Evaluation Mode
After you install ESXi, it operates in evaluation mode for up to 60 consecutive days. An evaluation mode license provides all features of the highest vSphere product edition.
After you assign a license to an ESXi host, at any time before the evaluation period expires, you can set the host back to evaluation mode to explore the entire set of features available for the remaining evaluation period.
For example, if you use an ESXi host in evaluation mode for 20 days, then assign a vSphere Standard license to the host, and 5 days later set the host back to evaluation mode, you can explore the entire set of features available for the host for the remaining 35 days of the evaluation period.
Esxi 5.5 License
License and Evaluation Period Expiry
For ESXi hosts, license or evaluation period expiry leads to disconnection from vCenter Server. All powered on virtual machines continue to work, but you cannot power on virtual machines after they are powered off. You cannot change the current configuration of the features that are in use. You cannot use the features that remained unused before the license expiration.
Esxi 5.5 License Key Free
Licensing ESXi Hosts After Upgrade
If you upgrade an ESXi host to a version that starts with the same number, you do not need to replace the existing license with a new one. For example, if you upgrade a host from ESXi 5.1 to 5.5, you can use the same license for the host.
If you upgrade an ESXi host to a major version that starts with a different number, the evaluation period restarts and you must assign a new license. For example, if you upgrade an ESXi host from 5.x to 6.x, you must license the host with a vSphere 6 license.
vSphere Desktop
vSphere Desktop is intended for VDI environments such as Horizon View. The license use for vSphere Desktop equals the total number of powered on desktop virtual machines running on the hosts that are assigned a vSphere Desktop license.
It has come to my attention that this article needs a refresh, since the download procedures have changed. Until such an article refresh (based on Update 1) is available, these 3 new download links work great, detailed at TinkerTry right here:
Download ESXi 5.5 Update 1 and the other vSphere pieces to get your home lab started Mar 12 2014.
Original article below:
To get started with your own vSphere 5.5 home lab, you'll find that there's just 3 files you'll need to download. Navigating VMware's site can be tricky. This article gives you the exact URLs, to help you be absolutely sure you got all the right bits and pieces, before you get started with installing anything.
These release notes cover 3 products, with the 2 you'll need to get started on a typical home lab bolded. The vCenter Server download that I'm ignoring in this post is more for folks that wish to install vCenter manually on top of a Windows Server, now a bit old school, since the VCSA (VMware vCenter Server Appliance) has come so far in scale and capabilities, and speed of deployment. You don't need to know Linux at all to configure and use it, as I demonstrate on video here. See also configuration maximums.
VMware ESXi™ 5.5 22 SEPT 2013 Build 1331820
VMware vCenter Server™ 5.5 22 SEPT 2013 Build 1312298
vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 22 SEPT 2013 Build 1312297
Plenty of time to read the release notes during the download of those 3 files, which total 2.38GB in all, pictured above. If you have a slower connection, you may prefer to chose the Akamai DLM option for all the downloads, explained here.
1) Download VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 5.5.0 Build 1331820
Visit this site, and click the Download button:
my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere_hypervisor_esxi/5_5
You're then challenged to login with credentials. Choose new or existing account, because either way, all these downloads listed below are available for free. Licensing is a separate issue.
Once you've logged in, you'll see the download buttons, the one you want is the first item listed. Download game initial d apk for android.
Here's the details of the file, and the link to the product page:
VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.5.0, Release Date 2013-09-22 ESXi ISO image (Includes VMware Tools), File size: 326MB
VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0-1331820.x86_64.iso
2) Download VCSA (VMware vCenter Server Appliance - OVA File) 5.5.0 Build 1312297*
Visit this site:
my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VC550&productId=352&rPId=4260
and authenticate, then Accept the VMware End User License Agreement, as seen at right. You'll need this appliance to have access to many of the ESXi 5.5 specific features that are only accessible by pointing your browser to this appliance, aka, vSphere Web Client. This is how you'll be able to try the new and interesting stuff, seen here.
All you need is the one 5.5.0 OVA file with 'vCenter Server Appliance' in the name.
The site won't allow direct links to the individual 'Download' button, but all the other appliance-related files are bundled inside the OVA file, kindly pointed out by TinkerTry commenter Squuiid here(and article updated accordingly 09:48am ET 9-23-2013).
VMware vCenter Server Appliance - OVA File File size: 1.8GBVMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.5.0.5100-1312297_OVF10.ova
*As of Jan 25 2014, this has been replaced by 5.5.0b available from a new download URL, but all these instructions remain essentially unchanged:
my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VC550B&productId=353
3) Download VMware vSphere Client 5.5.0 Build 1281650
Visit this URL, it's a direct link to the installer EXE:
vsphereclient.vmware.com/vsphereclient/1/2/8/1/6/5/0/VMware-viclient-all-5.5.0-1281650.exe
VMware vSphere Client File size: 348 MB (or, shortened for easy sharing, bit.ly/vsphereclient55)VMware-viclient-all-5.5.0-1281650.exe**
You still need this C# Windows 32 bit program to initially configure your ESXi host, and to deploy the appliance ('File, Deploy OVF Template'), but after that, not so much. This is the same exact link to the actual EXE from VMware's site that you get when you click on the 'Download vSphere Client' button upon pointing your browser straight to your ESXi host. No authentication is required, can be downloaded at any time.
Use the Windows Explorer screenshot above as your guide, to determine if you got the correct 3 files.
You are now ready, congratulations! You have the same exact ESXi as seen on Sep 20 2013 here, Wow, is that a 62TB drive in my home lab?
You may wonder, what about the Client Integration Plug-In in the vSphere Web Client? Well, that bit of code will be coming straight from your VCSA on your local network, once you've got the appliance up and running. Thankfully, the vSphere Web Client is now a decent performer, especially when run off a SATA3 SSD, as seen on the TinkerTry YouTube Channel. Not something I'd dare say about 5.1, which was pretty much intolerable. Phew!
What's next? I will be creating a step-by-step 5.5 installation/configuration guide with video at TinkerTry.com soon. It will be an updated version of the original hit (based on a slightly earlier build) Build your own VMware vSphere Datacenter in under an hour with the free ESXi 5.5 hypervisor. See also Superguide: VMware vSphere.
Oct 01 2013 Update:
For a comprehensive, step by step guide to the entire process, see also the more thorough, newer article here:
Build your own VMware vSphere 5.5 Datacenter with ESXi and VCSA by Paul Braren on Sep 30 2013.