[CentOS] redhat vs centos

Tue Nov 8 03:17:11 UTC 2011
Trey Dockendorf <treydock at gmail.com>

On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 8:38 PM, Marko Vojinovic <vvmarko at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Monday 07 November 2011 22:23:09 Reindl Harald wrote:
> > Am 07.11.2011 22:50, schrieb Marko Vojinovic:
> > > Typically, you have no way of knowing the physical structure of the
> > > "cloud machine" where your virtual machine is being hosted. Also, this
> > > structure may even change over time due to upgrades of the cloud
> > > hardware (by the cloud provider). You wouldn't even know about it.
> >
> > again:
> >
> > the physical structure does not matter
> > you pay for virtaul CPUs as you do also for virtual appliances
> > of some vendors where you can get a license with 2 vCPUs or
> > 4 vCPUs - independent if you have your own hardware or using
> > any hsoting service
> >
> > what is there so difficulty to understand?
>
> Well, what I don't understand is how many vCPU's are equal to one socket.
>
> Or, to be explicit, let me invent an example: suppose that I have leased
> virtual hardware from some 3rd party, and have obtained a virtual machine
> with
> 6 vCPU's. I want to buy RHEL licences to install on that machine. AFAIK, RH
> counts licences in sockets. How many licences should I buy? Or, iow, how
> many
> sockets is equal to 6 vCPU's?
>
> Does RH have a formula for the number of sockets as a function of the
> number
> of  vCPU's (and vice versa)?
>
> Best, :-)
> Marko
>
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Socket != vCPU.  There is no need for a formula.  The licensing is done
based on the hosting hardware.  That does not mean it has to be a RHEL
hypervisor.  When I got my quotes it was to put 4 guests on a 2-socket
VMware ESXi server.  That would be a single license for 2-socket w/ 4
guests.  That wouldn't change no matter how many vCPUs I used.  It's much
easier to ensure license compliance on the hosting hardware than on
something as dynamic as the vCPU count.

I'd recommend contacting Red Hat to get a definitive answer as I am basing
what I know on my talks with my campus' Red Hat rep several months ago.

- Trey