VMware recently released vSphere and vSAN 8.0 Update 3, and of course, we had to invite Feidhlim, Jason, and Pete back on the show to discuss what’s new in these releases. There’s awesome new functionality released and some great enhancements, so make sure to listen to the full episode.
Key Takeaways:
vSphere 8.0 update 3 introduces the vSphere Live Patch Update Path, which allows for patching ESXi hosts without evacuating VMs or entering full maintenance mode.
Improvements in GPU functionality include the ability to use two DPUs in an ESXi host for availability, better support for VGPUs with different profiles and memory sizes, and simplified activation of GPU mobility with DRS.
The vSphere cluster service (VCLS) has been re-architected to reduce resource consumption and improve rollback mechanisms.
The 8.0 update 3 introduces stretched VVols, which customers have been asking for, and support for stretched fault tolerance.
There are enhancements in VVols, including unmapped support for NVMe over fabrics.
The updates in NVMe over Fabrics provide faster data migration and cloning.
NFS enhancements include VMK port binding and support for NFS version 4.1.
vSAN 8.0 U3 introduces new features and enhancements in flexible topologies, agile data protection, and enhanced management.
The support for stretch cluster arrangement in VCF allows customers to take full advantage of ESA and improve performance, storage efficiency, and resilience.
The full support of vSAN Max as principal storage within a workload domain enables customers to maintain a centralized shared storage model while leveraging the capabilities of vSAN.
vSAN data protection allows users to create snapshots based on groups of VMs, set snapshotting schedules, and easily recover VMs without them being part of the inventory.
Enhancements in alerting capabilities for NVMe storage devices and proactive hardware management provide better visibility and intelligence about the health and well-being of storage devices.
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VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) 9.x: the included components, the 0.25 TiB/core vSAN entitlement, paid add-ons, core counting and 9.1 licensing.
Short answer: VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) is Broadcom’s per-core subscription for the vSphere platform. It bundles vSphere Enterprise Plus, vCenter Standard, vSphere Kubernetes Service and VCF Operations (including logs and diagnostics), plus 0.25 TiB of raw vSAN capacity per licensed core. NSX, VCF Automation and SDDC Manager-style fleet lifecycle stay in VMware Cloud Foundation. Extra vSAN capacity, SRM / Live Recovery and Avi are paid add-ons.
VVF and VCF were introduced at the end of 2023, when Broadcom replaced the long list of vSphere editions and bundles with two main offers. This article lists what VVF actually contains today. For an edition-by-edition comparison (VVF vs VCF vs the remaining vSphere 8 editions), see my vSphere 9 product line comparison.
ESX hypervisor with the full feature set: DRS, HA, vMotion, Storage vMotion, distributed switch, host profiles and configuration profiles
vCenter Standard
Central management, Enhanced Linked Mode, vSphere Lifecycle Manager
vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS)
Supervisor and conformant Kubernetes clusters next to VMs (formerly Tanzu Kubernetes Grid)
VCF Operations
Monitoring, capacity, compliance; includes VCF Operations for logs and VCF Operations diagnostics (formerly Aria Operations, Aria Operations for Logs and Skyline)
vSAN
0.25 TiB raw capacity per licensed VVF core
Support
Broadcom Software Maintenance Essential Support
How the vSAN entitlement works in VVF
Each VVF core includes 0.25 TiB of raw vSAN capacity; VCF includes 1 TiB per core (KB 313548). The total is rounded up to the nearest whole TiB.
Capacity is pooled across the whole VVF estate, so cores in compute-only clusters still add to the TiB you can use in vSAN clusters.
vSAN is optional. VVF runs fine on NFS or Fibre Channel storage.
There are no vSAN editions inside VVF: encryption, stretched clusters and vSAN storage clusters (formerly vSAN Max) are all included.
Capacity beyond the entitlement requires the vSAN add-on.
Worked example: counting VVF cores and vSAN TiB
Licensing is per physical core with a minimum of 16 cores per CPU (KB 313548). A 4-host cluster with two 12-core CPUs per host is therefore licensed as 4 x 2 x 16 = 128 cores, not 96. Those 128 cores include 128 x 0.25 = 32 TiB of raw vSAN capacity. If the cluster needs 50 TiB raw, you license 18 TiB of vSAN add-on capacity. Remember that the entitlement is raw capacity, before RAID-5/6 or mirroring overhead.
VVF add-ons
vSAN add-on (additional TiB)
VMware Live Recovery Cloud
Site Recovery Manager
VMware Avi Load Balancer
Licensing changes in VVF 9.1
VVF 9.1 became generally available on May 5, 2026. The FAQ lists these licensing changes:
25-character license keys are replaced by subscription license files, created in the Business Services console.
VCF Operations is required: license files are uploaded to VCF Operations and assigned to vCenter instances.
A new headless VCF License Server appliance is deployed and lifecycled automatically during installation or upgrade.
Perpetual licenses cannot be upgraded to 9.1; you must move to subscription first.
There are no standalone vSphere Standard or Enterprise Plus SKUs for 9.x; 9.x is only available as VVF or VCF.
Deployment and platform notes
Greenfield VVF 9.x is deployed with the VCF Installer, which also deploys VCF Operations. For a small lab walkthrough see deploying a minimal VCF 9.0 lab.
vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVols) are deprecated starting with VVF/VCF 9.0 and will be removed in a future release.
vSAN still requires certified hardware from the Broadcom Compatibility Guide (vSAN ReadyNodes).
Is VVF enough, or do you need VCF?
VVF fits a classic vSphere estate that wants DRS/HA, a modest amount of vSAN, Kubernetes and proper monitoring. Choose VCF when you need NSX overlay networking and security, VCF Automation (self-service/private cloud), fleet lifecycle management or 1 TiB/core of vSAN. The detailed feature matrix is in the product line comparison.
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