Merging 2 environments each with Essentials Plus - Licensing

[PhillyKev]

Our company has aquired a new office.  We currently have an Essentials Plus license, a vCenter server, and 3 hosts with shared storage.  Our new remote office has an Essentials Plus license, a vCenter server and 2 hosts with shared storage.

Can I,

A) Combine the licenses and put the vCenter servers in linked mode?  If so, how do I do that?  Add both licenses to both vCenter servers? Or just link them each with their own individual license.

B) If I do that, could I add a 4th host at our main site (resulting in 4 hosts here, 2 at the remote site)?  Or will I be limited to 3 hosts per vCenter?

If I can't do the above, what's the best/cheapest upgrade path (we don't need additional features beyond HA).

Thanks!

[a_p_]

Unfortunately none of the above options will work. The Essentials Kits may only be used as separate environments. Linked mode is also not available for Essentials licenses.

From http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/esx_esxi_eula.html

c) VMware vSphere Essentials and VMware vSphere Essentials Plus

... For these Editions, the  server hosts must be managed by the VMware vCenter Server that is  provided with these Editions, and that same VMware vCenter Server cannot  be used to manage other server hosts not included with these Editions.

Only "VMware vSphere Essentials Kit for Retail and Branch Offices" allows to combine ESXi hosts in a single vCenter Server Standard instance (see http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf)

If you want/need to manage all of your hosts in a single vCenter Server instance (or using Linked Mode) you may need to upgrade to vCenter Server Standard as well as e.g. Standard CPU licenses (e.g. Standard Acceleration Kit plus additional CPU licenses).

André

[PhillyKev]

Bummer.  Ok, thanks.  Not a big deal to manage separately, just would have been handy.  Definitely not worth upgrading for.