Licensing is now calculated based on CPU cores (with a minimum of 16 cores per processor) rather than per-CPU socket.
Complex licensing metric (core-based), high entry cost, legacy documentation confusion, overhead of Supervisor VMs. vsphere kubernetes license
If you are on an older version of vSphere (6.7 or early 7.0) or haven't migrated to the Broadcom subscription model: Licensing is now calculated based on CPU cores
Note: Pricing is highly variable based on ELA/volume, but relative ordering is accurate. high entry cost
(for clarity/execution after Broadcom acquisition)
If you have vSphere Standard, you have the platform foundation, but you lack the license rights to spin up the multi-node Kubernetes clusters that most development teams require.