ESXI lic for a two CPU Dell R720 physical server

[CommodoreVic20]

i am having an extremely hard time with VMWare support on getting the correct ESXI lic for a Dell R720 server

the needs are very basic currently i downloaded Dell's ESXI 6.7.0 ISO as the server would not accept the latest 8.0 ESXI ISO for some reason

currently its running one windows 10 VM and is stuck in evaluation mode, i cant seem to get pricing for the bare bones basic ESXI lic from VMWare (about a week of back and forth emails with support and no answers. i keep hearing free free free but nothing says free about this, im also told to download 7.0 but cant seem to get the ISO for that it bounces to 8.0 HELP

add to this that Dell says contact VMware and VMware says contact Dell (tons of back and forth) for what ever reason "Free" doesnt seem to work as i am unable to download 7.0 which would probably work but am unable to download the so called free product, i was able to download 8.0 but it would not even load on the R720 (2cpu 12 core)  although Dell's 6.7.0 ISO did . 

somehow its in evolution mode and i cant get it out. 

why is support and sales so bad at getting pricing? the needs are very minimal and all that is needed is bare bones basic but would like to have the option of running a few other vm's if needed later it really should not be this hard, it wasnt like this a few years ago? whats going on at VMware??? 

[scott28tt]

My understanding is:

If it was for non-commercial use AND you were using a supported version (7.0 or 8.0) you would be able to use a free "vSphere Hypervisor" licence - you wouldn't get any support but would be able to run VMs within the constraints of the "vSphere Hypervisor" licence.

Otherwise you would need to buy a vSphere licence for the number of CPUs in the host, you can only buy a licence for 8.0 but should be able to downgrade it to a 6.x licence.

[IRIX201110141]

Even the Dell 13Gen. isnt supportet (on paper) for vSphere 8. Your 12Gen. is 4 years older so youre out of luck when speaking of vSphere 8 but technical you can run vSphere 7(unsupported) on this Hardware.

Take a look to the free vSphere Hypervisor... if your VM runs with max.8 vCPU and you dont have a need of the unlocked APIs(Backup!!) than this may the right one for you.

Otherwise go for a vSphere Essentials bundle for 490,- and 65,- EUR (1Y Subscripton). You alway buy the latest license... and than downgrade the lic in the CustomerConnect Portal.

Last option was VMUG Adv. which costs 200,-? per Year but you will get Licenses with more Feature(doesnt make sence if you dont have shared storage).

Regards,
Joerg

[CommodoreVic20]

thank you, im running into a "you are not entitled to" when trying to download 7.0 😞  

[e_espinel]

Hello.
you must have a user and password ( free registration) in VMware connect
link: https://customerconnect.vmware.com

then you must register to get the free license and access to the downloads at the following link:
https://customerconnect.vmware.com/en/evalcenter?p=free-esxi7

When you install VMware vSphere automatically includes a demo license for 60 days with all its active features.

[CommodoreVic20]

Hi Virtuoso   

now i have a huge problem, i have been running the Dell version of ESXI 6.7  and now the trial is up and my one VM that was running on it (windows 10 64bit) is dead 

i tried contacting VMware sales and tech support with no help what so ever (granted its the free version allegedly) but i couldnt even get information on buying 7.0  or the most basic of basic version ......... or price 

right now the needs are very minimal as we have the one VM running on a Dell R720 server with two CPU's (12 core) 

everyone keeps mentioning a Free Lic but what exactly does that mean? i thought thats what i had with the Dell version of ESXI 6.7  ? but i guess not. 

i did early one try to load the 8.0 version but the server would not take it, then searched the Dell site and came across the 6.7  which loaded without issue but now i have this VM that will not boot as of the new year 😞 

again VMware has no path to communicate, i cant even put in a ticket to get a price for the most basic version of ESXI 7.0 

HELP!!!  

[CommodoreVic20]

i havent had a lot of luck and now i have a dead VM that wont boot, VMware sales have not been any help either

im fine with no support for now as its just a single windows 10 VM 

it seems the instructions are simply not clear as to how to get this done 😞  

from what i can tell the current version i have installed ESXI 6.7 from dell (its an ISO that dell has on their site) is not upgradable ? 

when i did get ahold of VMware support they kept pushing to Dell but when i contacted dell they pushed me back to VMware and so on, then VMware support pushed me to VMware sales which does not respond to pricing questions 

[a_p_]

VMware unfortunately stopped offering free license keys for versions 6.x in October, after vSphere 6.x went out of support.
If your host isn't supported with later versions, and you don't already have a free 6.x license key, your options are limited to e.g.

1. reinstalling ESXi with the "Preserve VMFS datastore" option (to preserve the VMs)
2. purchasing a vSphere Essentials Kit, which - like with all paid editions - can be up- or downgraded to the version that you need

Note that with option 1 the 60 days evaluation period will start again, but will also expire again after another two months.

André