ESXi 5 for host with more than 32 GB of RAM

[Strikki]

Hello, dear sirs!

I'm tried vmware ESXi 5 on our little server, and it's works just fine(server has 16 GB of RAM)! Thanks!

Now we decided to perform a little upgrade, and increase a ram, say, up to ~90 GB.

I hear from some guy(and also various discussions here and there, applied to various versions of ESXi and ESX) that free (but still required registration) license of ESXi allow only up to 32 GB of RAM. Is it actually true for 5-th version of ESXi. In other places (like http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2009/06/esxi-vs-esx-a-comparison-of-features.html) this information do not confirmed.

If it's so, we'd like to buy a license. But here I stuck too: which kind of license do we choose?

I'm confused with various vSphere, vCenter, and lot's of other things, never tried they...

It seems, that we have only one server, so I guess, we do not need a vSphere staff, do we?

Btw, there is several CPUs(as I know) and each of them has several cores. Do it take effect on choosing process?

Thank you much!

Sergei Petrunin

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Community,

For current licensing see http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf

The free Hypervisor is indeed limited to 32GB physical memory, whereas all other (paid) editions are licensed per processor/socket, without any limitations on cores per socket or memory. In your case - assuming you ESXi host does not have more than 2 sockets - I'd suggest you take a look at the Essentials Edition.

André

[mcowger]

If it's so, we'd like to buy a license. But here I stuck too: which kind of license do we choose?

Probably Standard or Essentials is right for you.  Add very little besides API support, removal of 32GB limit.

I'm confused with various vSphere, vCenter, and lot's of other things, never tried they...

It seems, that we have only one server, so I guess, we do not need a vSphere staff, do we?

With just 1 host, you dont need vCenter.  vSphere is the name of all the products together - its not a specific product.

Btw, there is several CPUs(as I know) and each of them has several cores. Do it take effect on choosing process?

Cores doesn't matter, just sockets.

Thank you much!

Sergei Petrunin