vSphere with Operations Management (vSOM) FAQs

Happy New Year to everyone who have been following my blog.  It been a great year last year and the start of the year have already got me real busy.

To start the year going, I decide to have my first post regarding vC Ops in vSOM which have been rising lots of questions.

As more customers are looking at better managing their environment, the standalone vSphere license become less attractive as the only monitoring that is possible is from vCenter performance charts.  Using this could be an easy way out for a small 2-3 hosts environment however if you have more  hosts or over 100 of VMs, that would be a tedious task to be accomplish everyday.  Especially when an issue rise.

As you know VMware has release a new package for vSphere which is known as vSphere with Operation Management.  This package added in vC Ops Standard edition as part of the processor license and allow customers to monitor unlimited number of VMs running on such licensing type in the cluster.  You can read more about vSOM here.

In terms of licensing and best practice, it is not recommend to mix different type of licenses in the same cluster to avoid complexity when troubleshooting.  So remember to license all your processors of your hosts with the same type and edition of license in the same cluster.

vC Ops can also be purchase as ala cart as well however it is more expensive as this allow customers to choose which VM to be protected.  They are sold in pack of 25 VMs.  So there is no need to license by processor licensing like in vSOM.  But to be effective in the cost and licensing, vSOM should be the way to go moving forward in view of manageability.

So how can I change the license in vC Ops if you have purchase vC Ops in ala cart or in vSOM?  You can refer to this KB for the steps.

For vSOM customers, below are the common asked questions:

Q: I cannot locate the license in myVMware portal.
In vSOM licensing, vC Ops licenses are not located in myVMware portal.  This is because the license allows unlimited VMs limit.  vC Ops license that can be found in myVMware portal are for ala cart purchase which have a limit of number of VMs (multiple of 25 due to pack of 25 are sold).

Q: How can I locate the license for vC Ops if I have purchase vSOM?
You can find the license in a text file (.txt) in the download page.  Please note your myVMware account must be entitled to download vSOM.

After login, go to download page, select vSOM.


Select vC Ops Standard.

Scroll down and you will locate the license key file.

Q: My vC Ops does not seems licensed after I apply the vSOM license.
Other than the vSphere license that you have applied to the host, you will need to apply the unlimited license to the Solution section in vCenter.  Refer to this KB.

Q: Can I monitor VMs not in vSOM licensing cluster?
No.  You will violate End User License Agreement (EULA).

Q: How can I monitor VMs in outisde the vSOM Cluster?
You can do so by purchasing ala cart vC Ops.


Hope this explain more details for everyone who is confuse.

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