VMware renewal quote checklist: what each line should show before you sign

Before the quote arrives

Each line of a renewal quote can be checked against something Broadcom publishes, provided four things are ready first: the core count per host, taken with the PowerCLI tool in Broadcom’s knowledge base article 313548 (our core-counting guide runs it step by step); the raw vSAN capacity in TiB, if the estate runs vSAN; the current subscriptions, each with its Site ID and end date; and the tier decision, taken on the features the estate will run during the term, as our renewal guide sets out. The counting rules behind every line are in our licensing guide.

If a right-sizing pass can retire a host (where the waste is), do it before the count: in Broadcom’s licensing terminology, you decide what capacity to purchase for a subscription, and subscriptions are term-based. A renewal decided without independent data on actual usage is one of the situations our VMware optimisation service is built for.

The checklist

Each row is a line or a date on the quote.

Broadcom product-line comparison (April 2026), programme documents (June 2026), VVF and VCF 9.1 FAQs, VCF 9.1 licensing documentation (September 2026), Maintenance Policy Handbook (8 June 2026) and the KBs named.

Cores and vSAN TiB: reconcile the quantities

The June 2026 programme documents for VVF and VCF state the count in one sentence: “The required number of Core licenses equals the number of Cores on the Server, subject to the minimum of 16 Core licenses per Processor.” Cores deactivated in the BIOS count; hyper-threads do not, since a core is a physical unit.

Reconcile the quote with the tool in KB 313548, documented up to ESXi 8.0, whose output has a row per host with NUM_CPU_SOCKETS, NUM_CPU_CORES_PER_SOCKET and FOUNDATION_LICENSE_CORE_COUNT, the last with the 16-core minimum applied. Ask the reseller for the host-level list behind the quoted figure. Three gaps sit outside the tool. It counts hosts connected to a vCenter instance, so hosts that no vCenter manages are counted by hand, from the cores per socket in the host’s hardware view. Disconnected hosts produce an error to resolve before the tool runs again. And with cores disabled in the BIOS, Broadcom warns that it “may produce inaccurate results”, while every core must still be licensed. A host kept for backups or standby counts whenever the software is installed on it.

VCF Edge has its own programme document (June 2026): at least 8 cores per processor, at least 10 Edge Locations within the first year of deployment and at most 256 cores per Edge Location. The order minimum is the one quantity the programme documents do not settle: they and KB 313548 carry only the 16-core rule, while a 72-core minimum per order was reported in March 2025, reported withdrawn in April, and is still explained in a video on vmware.com. On the quote, ask for the minimum in writing; the story is in our licensing guide.

For vSAN, the included capacity is 0.25 TiB per VVF core, rounded up to the next TiB and pooled across the environment, compute-only clusters included, or 1 TiB per VCF core. The requirement is the raw physical capacity that every host contributes to every vSAN cluster, which KB 313548 says the vSphere Client’s capacity overview does not show. The excess is a separate vSAN add-on line, counted in TiB.

Add-on lines: only what will run

Broadcom’s VCF 9.1 FAQ of 3 September 2026 lists nine advanced services, from Advanced Cyber Compliance to vSAN add-on capacity, which “are not included in the core VCF offerings”, and says that Avi Load Balancer, vDefend Firewall and VMware Live Recovery “continue to be licensed separately”. The VVF 9.1 FAQ lists four add-ons: vSAN capacity, VMware Live Recovery Cloud, Site Recovery Manager and Avi Load Balancer. At signing, each add-on line should name something the estate will run in the term and end on the same date as the cores.

Three details catch quotes. Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA is licensed in cores, and since 3 November 2025, “based on your VCF subscription, you might also receive a license” for it, per Broadcom’s licensing documentation: ask the reseller, or look in the Business Services console, before ordering it as a line. In 9.x, an add-on works only on top of a primary licence, which has to be assigned to the vCenter instances first. And on a quote that mixes VVF with a standalone edition, the VVF operations entitlement, still called Aria Suite Standard in its programme document, “can only be used to monitor VVF Cores”.

Site ID: where the licences land

Broadcom ties what you buy to a Site ID, which arrives in the Electronic Software Delivery email “at the close of your contract or contract renewal”, with the contract number (KB 197283). Keys for 8.x are delivered into the HOME folder of the Site ID, and term keys merge only when type, Site ID and end date are the same (KB 282428). A VVF or VCF subscription brings a 9.x default licence and 8.x keys, so hosts still on 8.x are licensed from the same purchase.

In 9.x the Site ID also decides pooling: a default licence pools subscriptions only if they share product, unit of measure and Site ID and do not support overage billing. A renewal booked under another Site ID therefore does not join the existing licence. Broadcom’s KB 429748 describes the consequence for VCF Operations 9.0.x in connected mode: the instance is unregistered from the old Site ID and registered with the new one, with a “coverage gap” if the old licence expires before the new one starts. Give the reseller the Site ID being renewed, and check it on the order.

Dates: start, end and what expiry does

Broadcom’s maintenance handbook of 8 June 2026 is plain: “If renewal is not completed prior to expiration of the Maintenance term, customers have no further entitlement to, and may not access any maintenance or support deliverables beyond the expiration date of the Maintenance or term.” What the software does at that date depends on the licence type.

Broadcom KB 391605 and KB 282428; VCF 9.1 licensing overview, updated 23 September 2026.

Three date checks follow. The new term should start where the current one ends, since the gap in KB 429748 is an old licence expiring before the new one begins. Lines should end together, because each subscription’s capacity leaves its licence on its own end date: in Broadcom’s own example, subscriptions of 100 cores ending on 30 June 2028 and 25 cores ending on 31 December 2028 license 125 cores until the first date and 25 after it. And the end date should be read from the subscription, not from VCF Operations: its licence file has “a rolling 180-day validity window”, and in Broadcom’s KB 418555 it shows licences expiring in 2026 under a contract that runs to 2028. Usage reports keep the window rolling: if no report is submitted and the licences are not updated at least every 180 days, Broadcom treats them as expired.

A Standard or Enterprise Plus term has no 9.x version to move to, so set its end date against vSphere 8’s calendar. Broadcom’s VCF blog said in August 2025 that vSphere 8 “will be supported until October 2027”, with optional Extended Support for purchase. Broadcom’s public list ends technical guidance for ESXi 8.0 and vCenter Server 8.0 on 11 October 2029, but for vSphere 7 Broadcom noted that technical guidance does not apply to Broadcom contracts: ask whether 2029 covers yours. Our vSphere 8 end of general support guide sets out the phases.

Support: what is included and who answers

For a subscription, Broadcom’s handbook places the maintenance deliverables inside the subscription term, Essential Support, version upgrades and product updates among them. VVF and VCF include Broadcom Software Maintenance Essential Support, per their 9.1 FAQs, and the VCF FAQ lists further options, such as Extended Expert Services and a VCF Technical Adoption Manager: if the quote carries a separate support line, ask which it is.

The handbook allows Broadcom maintenance to be obtained from authorised partners rather than from Broadcom directly, and such support providers “must be certified by Broadcom”; a VMware blog of September 2024 adds that support requests are in some cases routed to those partners automatically, and Broadcom’s KB 222311 lists them. Ask the reseller who delivers first-line support under this quote and where a case is opened. For estates we look after under VMware optimisation, our engineering partner Vixen.UNO provides support under an agreed SLA, alongside your Broadcom support.

What we do

Eurokommerz supplies VMware / Broadcom licensing together with our engineering partner Vixen.UNO, with audit, licensing and deployment under one European contract with us, as our software page explains. Under VMware optimisation, the Vixen.UNO team audits the estate and its licences, matches editions and subscriptions to real workloads within Broadcom’s current licensing logic, and draws up an action plan ahead of renewal and end of support, with dates. The first step is a free call; the paid technical assessment, its price fixed before work begins, delivers a report, a TCO and ROI model and that action plan. Modernisation of vSphere, vSAN, NSX and VCF follows in agreed maintenance windows with a rollback plan, then support under an agreed SLA. For the wider estate, our infrastructure audit covers licences, contracts and renewal dates.

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