Downgrading VMware VSPHERE 5 ESSENTIALS KIT FOR 3 HOSTS

[MAGNUMDRY]

Hi

We are running a free ESXi Hypervisor 4.1 and planning to add another host to our environment.

Because we want to manage both hosts we are thinking of purchasing VSPHERE 5 ESSENTIALS KIT FOR 3 HOSTS.

If we buy it, is it possible to downgrade component separately ?

We do not want to upgrade existing 4.1 host to 5.x but want to license it,

while we want to use the latest version of vCenter and additional ESXi host ?

Thank you in advance !

[a_p_]

Yes you can up- and downgrade licenses in the My VMware portal, where the licenses are registered. It will allow you to downgrade CPU licenses independently of the vCenter Server license.

André

[MAGNUMDRY]

Hi,André

Thank you for your answer !

Could you please let me confirm,,,

Can we use vCenter Server 5.5, vSphere 5.5 and vSphere 4.x simultaneously ?

Your reply will be much appreciated.

[nkrishnan]

If you are looking for using center server 5.5 to manage ESX 4. x, Yes, it's supported. Refer VMware interops matrix.

[a_p_]

Supported configurations are listed in the VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes. vCenter Server 5.5 supports ESX/ESXi 4.0 and newer. Anyway, if you are going to run the hosts in the same cluster, it's recommended to use the same version on all hosts. Also remember that ESXi 5.x introduced a newer version of the VMFS file system, which provides a couple of benefits. If you need to access a VMFS datastore from ESXi 4.x too, you have to use VMFS3 (supported by ESXi 4.x as well as 5.x).

André

[bjm534]

In addition to everyone's excellent suggestions I believe you'll also need to have vSphere 5x licenses as well as vSphere 4.x licenses so you can license all of your hosts.

-Brad

[MAGNUMDRY]

HI Brad and everyone

Thank you for your comments.

Much appreciated.

What I want to know the most is about licensing.

If we buy VSPHERE 5 ESSENTIALS KIT FOR 3 HOSTS, I believe we can run three vSphere Essentials Plus hosts and one vCenter Server for Essentials.

But is it possible to run one vSphere 5.5, one vSphere 4.1 and one vCenter 5.5 ?

We want to downgrade component of VSPHERE 5 ESSENTIALS KIT FOR 3 HOSTS separately.

Thanks again.

[a_p_]

Yes, like I mentioned before you can up- and downgrade licenses and split the host licenses, e.g.  vCenter Server 5.x, four CPU licenses for ESXi 5.x and 2 CPU licenses for ESXi 4.x.

André