VSphere Essentials Plus - Upgrade to Standard

[Sergio_E_]

Hi Folks,

Big Question ?:| Is it possible to upgrade from VSphere Essentials / Essentials Plus to VSphere Standard or Enterprise?

I've looked up and down, and it seems that it is not possible, including some forums posts regarding VS Essentials as an "dead-end product".

Is this true?

Same thing with VMotion for VS Essentials, is it possible to license this feature?

Thanks in advance for any insight,

SE

[VladN]

No, you can't upgrade or add features to Essentials/Essentials Plus.

If you will eventually need to add 4-th ESX/ESXi server or need any features not included in those bundles (e.g. VMotion), take a look at vSphere 4 Acceleration Kits.

[AndreTheGiant]

I've looked up and down, and it seems that it is not possible, including some forums posts regarding VS Essentials as an "dead-end product".

True. Essential is a "closed" bundle products.

Andre

[Sergio_E_]

Thanks a lot for your comments,

I really hope that VMware will be doing something about this limitation, we have many SMB customers facing the problem of going with Essentials at ~$3.600 (no growth) or with the Standard Kit at ~$14.000.

Let's see if the antagonists use this as marketing ammo

SE

[Brian_Buchanan]

Old thread but this issue is bugging me.

I think VMWare has a huge hole in their product offering. I bought Essentials Bundle for $850 (now it's $495), and now I want to add a 4th server. The incremental cost for that one server is about $14,588 ($1,068.00 * 8 for vSphere Standard Basic + $6,044.00 for vCenter Standard Basic). That incremental cost is unacceptable! I can't even just buy vCenter because I'm told that it won't manage Essential servers.

How is a customer to grow with VMWare?

http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/facts.html

[AndreTheGiant · Accepted solution]

Things are changed.

Now it is possible.

For example:

Upgrade: VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Bundle to vSphere Advanced Acceleration Kit for 6 processors

VS4-ESPL-AD-AK-UG-C

Andre

[ealaqqad]

Hi Andre,

Your post above is great, as many people still caught up with old restriction. Actually I was at a customer yesterday, who made me doubt that the restriction still exist. Though after checking out you were right the upgrade path is there now. I have just even posted that on my blog for others searching on this info at:

VMware vSphere Essentials Kit & Essentials Plus Kit upgrade path

Who said answering an older forum post is useless, your reply to this old forum post has put me & sure many other back on the right track.

I hope this help some one, if it does please reward points.

Enjoy,

Eiad Al-Aqqad

System X & Storage Technical Specialist

Founder of http://www.VirtualizationTeam.com

Founder of http://www.TSMGuru.com

[firmdale]

Here is a good post that explains upgrade path.

http://www.virtualizationteam.com/virtualization-vmware/vsphere-virtualization-vmware/vmware-vsphere...