VMware vSphere 6 has been released to the market 4 weeks ago. There are many new features and enhancements, but as you know there are different pricing and licensing models. It is available as a la carte licensing priced on a per CPU basis or in packs of 25 VMs and for small deployments as Kits. This post takes a look on the availability of new vSphere features in different vSphere editions.

VMware vSphere Standard (A la carte licensing on a per CPU basis)

(A la carte licensing on a per CPU basis) VMware vSphere Enterprise (A la carte licensing on a per CPU basis)

(A la carte licensing on a per CPU basis) VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus (A la carte licensing on a per CPU basis)

(A la carte licensing on a per CPU basis) VMware vSphere Remote Office Branch Office Standard (Priced in packs of 25 VMs)

(Priced in packs of 25 VMs) VMware vSphere Remote Office Branch Office Advanced (Priced in packs of 25 VMs)

(Priced in packs of 25 VMs) VMware vSphere Essentials Kit (All-in-one solutions for up to three physical servers)

(All-in-one solutions for up to three physical servers) VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Kit (All-in-one solutions for up to three physical servers)

Virtual Volumes

Virtual Volumes is the completely new virtual machine disk management and integration framework that enables array-based operations at the virtual disk level.

VVOL is available in all vSphere Editions (Standard, Enterprise, Enterprise Plus)

VVOL is available in ROBO Editions

VVOL is not listed for Essentials Kits

Multi-CPU Fault Tolerance

vSphere Fault Tolerance has been enhanced to support protection of virtual machines with up to four vCPUs and 64GB of memory.

vSphere Enterprise Plus and ROBO Advanced supports 4 vCPU Fault Tolerance

vSphere Standard, Enterprise and ROBO Standard supports 2 vCPU Fault Tolerance

(Multi-CPU) Fault Tolerance is not listed in Essentials Kits



Cross vSwitch / Cross vCenter / Long Distance vMotion

With vSphere 6.0 you can migrate Virtual Machines across virtual switches, vCenters and accross routed connections with a RTT of up to 100ms. More information on vSphere 6.0 vMotion Enhancements here.

Cross vSwitch vMotion is available in all vSphere Editions

Cross vSwitch vMotion is available vSphere Essentials Plus Kit

Cross vCenter vMotion is available in vSphere Enterprise Plus only

Long Distance vMotion is available in vSphere Enterprise Plus only

Cross vSwitch vMotion is not listed for ROBO Editions

Cross vCenter vMotion is not available in vSphere Standard, Enterprise, ROBO and Essentials

Long Distance vMotion is not available in vSphere Standard, Enterprise, ROBO and Essentials



Virtual SAN Enhancements

As Virtual SAN is sold separately, it is not included in any editions. If you already own a Virtual SAN license, it includes all Virtual SAN 6.0 features, except All-Flash. The new All-Flash architecture is available as add-on and priced at $1,495 per CPU or $30 per desktop. (Source)

vSphere Network I/O Control Version 3

Network I/O Control in vSphere 6 enables administrators to reserve (guarantee) bandwidth to a vNIC.

Network I/O Control enhancements are only available in Enterprise Plus

Network I/O Control is not available in vSphere Standard, Enterprise, ROBO and Essentials



vSphere Data Protection Enhancements

VMware vSphere Data Protection Advanced has been consolidated into vSphere Data Protection 6.0. The advanced edition is no longer sold separately.

VDP is available in all vSphere Editions (Standard, Enterprise, Enterprise Plus)

VDP is available in all ROBO Editions

VDP is available in Essentials Kits

Content Library

The Content Library centrally manages virtual machine templates, ISO images, and scripts, and it performs the content delivery of associated data from the published catalog to the subscribed catalog at other sites.

Content Library is available in all vSphere Editions (Standard, Enterprise, Enterprise Plus)

Content Library is not listed for ROBO Editions

Content Library is not listed in Essentials Kits



General vSphere 6 Enhancements

Lots of enhancements are not bound to specific features and available in all vSphere Editions