Proxmox Migration Check: VMware vSphere Lint

Finds every VMware vSphere line in your Terraform, Packer and Ansible files and prints the exact Proxmox VE line that replaces it — 15 findings in the bundled sample _fixtures/dirty.tf (11 Terraform, 4 Packer), 27 rules.

Free web version (same engine, runs in your browser): https://getreadystack.com/tools/proxmox-migration-check-vmware-vsphere-licence-gate

Why this exists

Broadcom licenses VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation per physical core, with a minimum of 16 cores for each CPU in every ESXi host (Broadcom KB 313548). A host with 2 CPUs x 8 cores is counted as 32 cores. Small edge and branch sites pay for cores they do not have. In April 2025 a distributor memo also reported a 72-core minimum per order; Broadcom did not confirm it publicly, so this extension only uses the 16-core rule from KB 313548.

Moving to Proxmox VE (or XCP-ng / Harvester) is a code change before it is a hardware change: the vsphere Terraform provider, the vsphere-iso Packer builder and the community.vmware Ansible modules have to go. Every one you miss keeps the site on vCenter.

What it finds (and what it writes instead)

27 rules in total: 12 Terraform, 5 Packer, 10 Ansible. Every replacement name was read from the bpg/terraform-provider-proxmox docs, the hashicorp/packer-plugin-proxmox README and the community.proxmox 2.1.0 module list.

How to use

1. Open a .tf, .tfvars, .pkr.hcl, playbook or requirements.yml file.
2. Findings appear in the Problems panel, each with the line and the Proxmox VE replacement.
3. A clean file (the bundled _fixtures/clean.tf) shows 0 findings.

Everything runs locally. Nothing is uploaded.

Free and paid

• Free, no key: the open file — every vSphere line, with line number and the Proxmox replacement line. That job is complete on its own.
• Licence key ($29 once, one key per person or team seat): the whole workspace in one dated migration plan (each vSphere item mapped to its replacement) you keep, and a CI gate that fails a build adding new vSphere use. Get the full version

Yardstick

A US network and computer systems administrator earns a median $47.66 an hour (BLS OEWS 2025). One 8-hour day of reading a repo for vSphere lines is $381.28.

Limits

It reads text line by line. It does not log in to vCenter, count your cores or estimate a Broadcom quote. Module calls built from variables are not followed.