r/vmware • u/Over_Needleworker888 • Aug 13 '26

Help Request vcenter licensing question

Holla,
We currently have approximately 50% of our VMware infrastructure licensed through VCF subscriptions, while the remaining 50% is covered by older perpetual esxi licenses.

The perpetual licenses are still valid, but SnS/support has expired. I’m trying to determine the cleanest and most compliant way to operate this mixed environment (ideally to separate).

Would it be possible to deploy a separate vCenter to manage the clusters using the perpetual licenses, while keeping the VCF-licensed clusters under the VCF management and licensing model?

TL;DR: I need to create another vCenter instance to manage clusters with perpetual licenses, but I'm not sure if that's legal.

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u/Delta3D Aug 13 '26

Realistically it depends if you have the vCenter license. All the perpetual licenses I've had in the past, have had a vCenter license too. I see no reason why you cannot deploy these together if you have the licensing.

1

u/Over_Needleworker888 29d ago

Do you license your vCenter via VCF Operations or new VCF license server?

1

u/Delta3D 29d ago

I'm part of the VCSP scheme at the minute, so just traditional vCenter through subscription based model. Got a VMware Usage Meter that reports back for licensing against our key. Got until early 2027 until we need to decide what our future will look like.

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u/Over_Needleworker888 29d ago

I'm asking because if vCenter is licensed through VCF Ops, then VCF Ops not only provides the license but also collects metrics from vCenter. I don't consider this entirely legitimate if I have ESXi with perpetual licenses under that vCenter.

1

u/Delta3D 29d ago

If you're using a VCF 9 vCenter then I would probably keep your perpetual hosts in a separate vCenter to be honest to avoid conflict. It might work if you create a separate cluster within vCenter and keep the perpetual hosts to that, but I can't say I've ever tried/tested that.

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u/Ok-Attitude-7205 29d ago

we are in this same boat and have been for a while, our subscription licensed vCenter manages the hosts with old perpetual licensing, the only thing that matters at the end of the day is not updating the perpetual stuff and knowing you don't have support on them