Esxi 4.1 Standard to VSphere Essentials?

[pksupport]

Hello. We run two hosts with Standard Esxi 4.1 embedded. We use local storage, not shared, and we aren't going to shared storage anytime soon.

In order to get cost effective centralized managemend (right now I have to use separate Vi clients for each host), I've been directed to check out Vsphere Essentials.

It looks like it may work for us as we are not using the more advanced options of the Standard licenses, however I am wondering if I will have to re-install Vsphere on my hosts in order to manage them centrally, or if the console that comes with Vsphere Essentials will allow centalized management of my pre-existing Esxi servers without changing my current Esxi installation...does this make sense? My Vmware sales rep wasn't sure what I would have to do.

Thanks!

PK

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

The VMware binaries are the same for all editions, so there is usually no issue with replacing the license keys. However, with the embedded edition you mentioned, I'm not sure. Is this a vendor specific OEM version of ESXi or did you install the VMware version? In case of a vendor specific edition you may want to contact the vendor to find out whether changing the license is allowed/possible. If it is not possible to change the license, it should be possible to reinstall ESXi on the USB/SD device without issues for the VMs. All you might need to do in this case is to reconfigure the host (e.g. networking, NTP, ...)

Regarding centralized management, there's also no re-installation of the ESXi hosts needed. All you need to do is to deploy a vCenter Server instance (either Windows based or  the vCenter Virtual Appliance) and connect the hosts to this instance. This can be done without downtime for the VMs.

André

[pksupport]

Thanks Ande'.

We installed the embedded edition from Dell, but we got our license keys from CDW and VMware and they worked just fine, so maybe this isn't an issue.

Even if it is an issue, I suppose it isn't that big of a deal to re-install as long as the VM's aren't affected.

Thanks for your answer,

PK