ESX4 and ESXi4

[Cabby]

I've been searching through the communities and can't find an exact answer to ny questions.

We currently have a 10 ESX 3.5 Host environment and we will be upgrading to vSphere. I was hoping to take some of the load off of the current environment and save some money as well by buying some new server hardware and putting ESXi 4 on them. From that point I would put all of our test servers on the ESXi Hosts.

It looks like I can't manage the ESXi hosts in vCenter but was wondering if I purchased vSphere Essentials if I'd be able to manage them in vSphere's vCenter or would I have to use the vCenter that comes with Essentials. I have no intention of mixing the ESXi Hosts into the ESX clusters. I just want an easy way of managing the ESXi hosts.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Cabby

[EDV-COMPAS]

Hi,

if you wan´t to manage ESXi hosts in vCenter Server, you can´t use the free version of ESXi, because it doesn´t include the Agent for vCenter.

and, with the vSphere Essentials, you can only manage up to maximum 3 Hosts.

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[Cabby]

I said in the post

"It looks like I can't manage the ESXi hosts in vCenter but was wondering if I purchased vSphere Essentials if I'd be able to manage them in vSphere's vCenter or would I have to use the vCenter that comes with Essentials."

So I know I can't manage it in vCenter unless I buy something-I don't know what that something is. I also wasn't planning any more than 3 servers for our test environment.

CAB

[EDV-COMPAS]

take a look at the VMware vSphere 4 Essentials Bundle, this is all what you need, 3x2 cpu ESX or ESXi + vCenter for 3 Hosts

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[Cabby]

I don't think you are reading my post: I also said:

"It looks like I can't manage the ESXi hosts in vCenter but was wondering if I purchased vSphere Essentials if I'd be able to manage them in vSphere's vCenter or would I have to use the vCenter that comes with Essentials. I have no intention of mixing the ESXi Hosts into the ESX clusters. I just want an easy way of managing the ESXi hosts.

Thanks

[EDV-COMPAS]

ah ok, now i understand ... you already using vcenter server for your esx hosts ...

so the vsphere essentials bundle is like an one way street, if you buy it, you can only use it as it is .. you can´t upgrade any component of this bundle, so this is the reason why it is so cheap ...

using the bundle with an existing vcenter server may be work for the moment, but it is not made for using it in this way ..

so the only "supported" way for you is to buy full vsphere 4 licenses...

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[EDV-COMPAS · Accepted solution]

take a look at this link:

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

How do I use VMware vCenter Server to manage my VMware ESXi hosts?

VMware vCenter Server

provides centralized management for ESXi hosts and their virtual

machines. To manage an ESXi host with vCenter Server, you must have a

vCenter Server Agent license, which is included in all editions of VMware vSphere.

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[Cabby]

Thank you for your help. Actually I also found a link to a doc called ESXi Installable and vCenter Server Setup Guide and that gave me even more info.

CAB