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ESXi and what it does NOT have compared to regular ESX 3.5

OK so ESXi is free now. Can anyone tell me what features it does not have or support that ESX 3.5 has and supports? VMotion? HA? Storage VMotion? Cluster?

I just want a comparison between the two products.

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Dave_Mishchenko
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See the below PDF for a list of features per license edition. With the free version you get what is included in Standalone license. If you plan to use ESXi with VirtualCenter you would need to get VI Foundation licenses or higher and chart tells you what license you would need to run ESXi with what features.

Licensed features - page 61 - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3i_i/r35/vi3_35_25_3i_i_setup.pdf

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Dave_Mishchenko
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See the below PDF for a list of features per license edition. With the free version you get what is included in Standalone license. If you plan to use ESXi with VirtualCenter you would need to get VI Foundation licenses or higher and chart tells you what license you would need to run ESXi with what features.

Licensed features - page 61 - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3i_i/r35/vi3_35_25_3i_i_setup.pdf

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weinstein5
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The major difference is ESXi does not have the service console which will limit interaction with thrid party products - you will need to add the Remote CLI appliance to resolve these -

Also check this thread out - http://communities.vmware.com/message/1001410#1001410

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KMSI
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I recently bought VMware ESX 3.5 Foundation, and I've been running it for a few months. I currently do backups using a vcb-based script -- I presumed that's using the VMware Consolidate Backup license portion of Foundation. Since I have only one VMware server, I can't see any value in the Virtual Center agent license.

So I'm trying to figure out what I got with Foundation that's not included in the free version of ESX. If I were to guess, about all it would be, would be the ability to telnet/SSH to the server and run backup scripts. Am I correct that the command prompt and vcb commands are both missing in the free version? So I would need to find an alternative way to do backups -- e.g., esXpress? I've been considering that anyway.

Also, I'm unfamiliar with the RCLI. Never heard of it before. How does it compare with the CLI (SC?) that comes with Foundation?

/kenw

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Dave_Mishchenko
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Here's a feature list showing the differences. With ESXi you don't officically have the console or SSH access (you can get both although it is unsupported). The VCB command is missing and is also not licensed. To restore a backup you would need to use VMware Converter or manually copy the files back. Right now for backup you would have to rely on a custom script (search this forum). No one supports ESXi without VCB at this point and esXpress / vRanger should support it laster this fall.

The RCLI is meant to be a replace to using the console / SSH. You'll find most of the commands in it that you would with the service console, but it won't have feature parity until ESXi 4.0. The commands it includes are the esx* type commands.

Licensed features - page 61 - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3i_i/r35/vi3_35_25_3i_i_setup.pdf

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