multiple essentials plus licenses - Quick Q

[huwy]

hi there,

I've been asked to setup vCenter for a company that's bought 2x essentials plus licenses (v5). The have 6 hosts so will I have to create 2x Virtual Center servers

servers? I wasn't sure if the 3 host limit was applied to the vCenter or at cluster level.

Cheers,

Huw

[Virtualinfra]

3 License is to Host and vcenter level.

you have 1 vcenter and followed by adding 3 host to a datacenter, or cluster, Like 2 host with a cluster and one outside the cluster or all the 3 in cluster or all 3 in datacenter.

since you have 2 essential pluse license,

Below should work i belive.

install vcenter add both teh 2 essentila plus license, so that you can manage all the 6 ESXi host from the 1 single vcenter.

[Nikhil_Patwa]

Hi,

It also depends on the vCenter Server version, if you have purchased vSphere Essential Plus then it comes with vCenter Essentials license and that will allow only 3 hosts to be managed.

If your requirement is to manage all 6 hosts then I suggest you purchase vCenter Standard edition and vSphere Standard as well.

vSphere Essentials Plus licenses have a limitation of 3 hosts only and if you want to continue with Essentials Plus then you will have to create 2 sets of vCenter Server each managing 3 hosts.

Hope this information is useful

Nikhil

[Virtualinfra]

Yes thats correct,

Since he has got 2 essential plus license. He can try that way(Just a try), i mentioned as should work i belive.(This is not Must)

Possible can also check with per-sales people, if that is possible or not.. It not mentioned any way that way, but just a check with pre-sale can confirm that...

[Nikhil_Patwa]

Hi,

Check out this link that explains vsphere licensing and much more

Essentials Plus license have limitation of 3 hosts each with max 2 CPUs and it's targeted for small business

Nikhil

[Virtualinfra]

Thats Prefect, your correct.

Too add more, as mentioned in pervious post.

Kits are all in one solution, it cant be extended other than upgrade. as per this document

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf

But below update is no were mentioned, but if you contact Vmware directly they will update you on this.

There are few licensing changes from this FEB 2012, introduction few new licensing schem ( Like they have introduced unlimited licensing, which was not there before). So just to check, if there is a change in here also.

I already mentioned, it's just try. As there are 2 license to check with vmware pre-sales, if there is such option to manage from 1 vcenter by adding both the essentila plus license keys to it...

[a_p_]

The Essentials kits are all-in-one solutions which cannot be extended! You will need to manage the two kits separately. There's only one exception to this and this is the "VMware vSphere Essentials Kit for Retail and Branch Offices" which can centrally be managed by one vCenter Server instance. Please take a look at the Pricing and Licensing document (page 7) for details.

André

[huwy]

Thanks for replying Andre.

Just to clarify I'm going to need 2 VCs then?

Huw

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

Yes, each Essentials kit (up to 3 hosts) has to be managed by it's own vCenter Server.

André

[huwy]

Thanks.