Support on perpetual VMware licenses can no longer be renewed. Is your next subscription quote sized to what you run?
Broadcom sells VMware by subscription only, per physical core, mostly in two bundles: VCF and VVF. We count your cores, check which bundle you need and cost the alternatives before you renew.
16Cores licensed for every CPU, even one with fewer (Broadcom KB 313548)
| Count | Cores |
|---|---|
| Physical cores in the hosts | 72 |
| Cores you license | 96 |
| Cores you pay for that do not exist | 24 |
Each CPU counts as 16 cores: 3 × 2 × 16 = 96.
Most of the increase comes from how VMware is now sold, not from how much you use it. Each of these is a place where the quote can be bigger than your estate needs:
Subscription onlySince 11 December 2023 VMware is sold only as subscriptions. Perpetual licenses keep working, but their support cannot be renewed, so updates now mean a subscription.
Bundles, not productsAbout 9,000 product SKUs and 160 bundles were folded into VCF and VVF. If you ran vSphere and little else, the quote may include NSX, vSAN and Aria that you will never deploy.
The 16-core floorEvery CPU is licensed as at least 16 cores. Hosts with 8 or 12-core processors pay for cores they do not have.
A minimum orderBroadcom announced a 72-core minimum order in April 2025. Reports on whether it stayed in force differ, so check the current terms with your reseller before you size a small estate.
vSAN bought twiceStorage capacity now comes with the cores: 1 TiB of vSAN for each VCF core and 0.25 TiB for each VVF core. A separate vSAN add-on can pay for capacity you already have.
The Oracle knock-onOracle counts every physical core of every host an Oracle VM can run on. A cluster redesigned for the VMware renewal can raise the Oracle bill by more than the VMware saving.
The rules that set the size of a renewal, from Broadcom’s own knowledge base and announcements.
| Rule | What applies |
|---|---|
| License type | Subscription only since 11 December 2023. Perpetual licenses keep working without support |
| Metric | Per physical core |
| Minimum per CPU | 16 cores, even if the CPU has fewer (Broadcom KB 313548) |
| Minimum order | 72 cores, announced April 2025; verify current terms with your reseller |
| vSAN capacity included | 1 TiB per VCF core, 0.25 TiB per VVF core |
| Perpetual licenses without support | Critical security patches (CVSS 9.0 or higher) for vSphere 8.x only, no other updates (Broadcom KB 314603) |
| Offer | What it includes | Fits |
|---|---|---|
| VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) | The full private cloud stack: vSphere, vSAN, NSX and the Aria management suite | Estates that will deploy NSX and the full Aria suite |
| VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) | vSphere with Aria Operations and Aria Operations for Logs, plus vSAN capacity | Traditional vSphere estates |
| vSphere Standard | vSphere as a subscription | Small estates and basic consolidation |
| vSphere Essentials Plus Kit | A subscription kit kept for small estates | Small sites |
VMware announcement, updated 22 January 2024. The full list of products no longer sold on their own is on our Broadcom VMware licensing guide.
These examples use Broadcom’s counting rules and, for Oracle, Oracle’s published list price. They show how the numbers move; they are not quotes.
| Three hosts, two CPUs each | Physical cores | Cores licensed | Cores that do not exist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8-core CPUs | 48 | 96 | 48 |
| 12-core CPUs | 72 | 96 | 24 |
| 16-core CPUs | 96 | 96 | 0 |
| 24-core CPUs | 144 | 144 | 0 |
Cores licensed = hosts × CPUs × the larger of 16 and the cores per CPU.
Below 16 cores per CPU, a server refresh with smaller processors no longer lowers the VMware bill. The processor choice now changes the VMware bill as well as the hardware bill.
| 96 licensed cores on | vSAN capacity included |
|---|---|
| VVF (0.25 TiB per core) | 24 TiB |
| VCF (1 TiB per core) | 96 TiB |
Check this against what you store before buying a vSAN add-on.
One Oracle Database Enterprise Edition VM with 4 vCPUs runs on a three-host cluster with two 16-core Intel Xeon processors per host. Oracle counts the whole cluster: 96 cores × 0.5 core factor = 48 processor licenses. On a dedicated two-host cluster with two 8-core processors per host, the count is 32 cores × 0.5 = 16.
A gap of US$1,520,000 in licenses, before 22% a year in support
Oracle price list of 15 September 2026. The full rules are on our licensing Oracle on VMware page.
There are three ways through a VMware renewal. Even if you stay, costing one alternative properly before you negotiate changes the conversation.
Renew, right-sizedChoose VVF or vSphere Standard where the VCF features will not be used, license the cores you will run, and count the vSAN capacity that comes with them.
Shrink the footprintFewer, denser hosts reduce core counts for both Broadcom and Microsoft licensing, but may raise failure-domain risk. At a hardware refresh, pick processors with the 16-core floor in mind.
Move some or all workloadsOrganizations compare Microsoft Hyper-V and Azure Local, Nutanix AHV, Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, open-source KVM platforms such as Proxmox VE, and public cloud. Migration effort, tooling, skills and backup changes are part of the cost.
| Cost to compare | Stay on VMware | Move to Hyper-V or Azure Local |
|---|---|---|
| Hypervisor and management | Per-core subscription | Included with Windows Server, or the Azure Local per-core fee |
| Windows Server host and guests | Windows licenses for host cores and guests | Same licenses, with the Hyper-V role at no extra fee |
| SQL Server | Unchanged licensing rules | Unchanged licensing rules |
| Oracle Database | Every core of every host the VM can run on | The same: Hyper-V is not an approved hard partition |
| Migration and operations | None | Migration effort, tooling, skills and backup changes |
Oracle accepts only the hard partitioning technologies on its list. Nutanix AHV is not on it either; Oracle Linux KVM with pinned cores is. See licensing Oracle on VMware.
For the Microsoft side of a move, see Windows Server licensing.
Start at least six months before the renewal date, with your own core count and a costed alternative. The work runs in five steps.
Core countLicensed cores by host and cluster, with the 16-core floor applied.
Bundle fitWhich features you deploy, and whether VCF, VVF or vSphere Standard covers them.
Storage checkThe vSAN capacity that comes with your cores against what you store.
Cost modelStaying, shrinking and moving side by side, over the subscription term.
Cross-publisher impactWhat each option does to your Oracle and Microsoft licensing.
Renewal briefThe position, the numbers and the alternative to take into the negotiation.
IndependentWe do not resell any publisher’s licenses or earn income from publishers. Our focus is our customers.
Every publisher on the hypervisorWe model VMware together with the Oracle and Microsoft licensing that runs on it, because a change in one moves the others.
Your numbers firstEvery renewal starts from your own core count, so the quote has to answer to it.
Mostly because of how VMware is now sold. Subscriptions replaced perpetual licenses and support, most products are only available inside the VCF and VVF bundles, and every CPU is licensed as at least 16 cores. An estate that bought vSphere alone, on small processors, feels all three.
VCF is the full private cloud stack: vSphere, vSAN, NSX and the Aria management suite, with 1 TiB of vSAN per core. VVF suits traditional vSphere estates and includes Aria Operations and Aria Operations for Logs, with 0.25 TiB of vSAN per core. If NSX and the full Aria suite will not be deployed, compare VVF and vSphere Standard before signing.
VMware is sold as a per-core subscription, so the cost is your licensed core count times the per-core price of the bundle and term you buy. Every CPU counts as at least 16 cores, so the count is where savings start.
Sixteen cores for every CPU, even one with fewer. Broadcom also announced a 72-core minimum order in April 2025; reports on whether it stayed in force differ, so check the current terms with your reseller.
Yes, they keep working. Without support you get no updates or technical support, apart from critical security patches for vSphere 8.x.
Organizations compare Microsoft Hyper-V and Azure Local, Nutanix AHV, Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, open-source KVM platforms such as Proxmox VE, and public cloud. We cost the one that fits your estate against a right-sized renewal.
Not by itself. Hyper-V and Nutanix AHV are not approved hard partitions either, so Oracle still counts every host a database VM can run on. Oracle Linux KVM with pinned cores is on Oracle’s approved list.
No. Windows guests need licenses on any hypervisor, and the same licenses cover them on Hyper-V. The saving from leaving VMware comes from the hypervisor line, not from the Microsoft guest licenses.
At least six months ahead, with your own core count and a costed alternative.
No. Rythium is independent and does not resell publisher licenses or earn income from publishers.
We charge a fixed fee for the assessment, a success-based fee or a hybrid, case by case, depending on the scope and the deliverables you need. Contact us for a scoped quote and tell us your preference.
Tell us about your hosts and your renewal date. We will show you what you must license, which bundle fits and what the alternatives cost.
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