ESX 4 Licensing Query

[jof]

Hi,

Recently I was trialing ESX 4 and Virtual Center and the trial period expired before I was finished testing. I did not need the vCenter features to finish the test so I tried entering a license key for ESXi free version on the hosts. This worked and I ended up with ESX 4 (with service console) running on an ESXi free license key, only ESXi features were available. It was only a test but just curious if this is supported, running ESX 4 with an ESXi 4 free license key.

[weinstein5]

Interesting - I do not see why it should not work - based on the license key you will only get the features of the free version and will have the service console -

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[Stu_McHugh]

That does sound strange! Remember if you are running the full ESX (Classic) then you will have the patching on that verion and not have the benifits of ESXi patching being small.

One other thing is that if you have ESXi free version then you will have to pay for support anyway.

Stuart

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[VMmatty · Accepted solution]

It is not supported. That license for ESXi is only supposed to be used for ESXi and not ESX. The fact that it works isn't all that surprising, but the EULA should limit you to just ESXi.

Look into the vSphere Essentials bundles - they're extremely affordable if you're just starting out with vSphere.

[jof]

VMmatty,

What you say makes sense. Not surprising that it would work but of course the EULA would not allow it , obvious now that you pointed it out :8}.