VMWare ESXi 5.5 Hypervisor free Edition on a 2 sokets server

[mike12321]

Hi forum,

I just installed a ESXi 5.5 Hypervisor on a one Socket HP Server for testing.

It works fine and I could licence it with the free ESXi License.

Now I would like to upgrade an acual ESXi 5.1 Fujitsu Server with two sokets (2x Xeon E5-2630 6C/12T) and 64 GB of RAM.

The server is in the 60 days eval mode of ESXi 5.1 because of the 64GB Ram. The free ESXi 5.1 hypervisor license only works for 32GB Ram, so I coudn't activate it.

Is it possible to update AND license the two sockets machine with ESXi 5.5 Hypervisor?

My actual one soket test-system shows that the license is valid for one socket. Can I register two free 5.5 Hypervisor licenses on the Fujitsu 2-sockets-server or is one licence enought.

On the worst case, doesn't it work with 5.5

I have only one single ESXi Server, so I don't need a vCenter and so on.

Was would be your opinion?

Thank you very much

[abhilashhb]

You can do a in-place upgrade from 5.1 to 5.5

check the below link to see how it is done. its for 5.0 to 5.1 but the steps would not change.

http://www.vladan.fr/esxi-free-how-to-upgrade-to-esxi-5-1/

[JarryG]

IIRC free hypervisor is not limited on number of sockets/cores. The only problem in your case is 64GB RAM. So either you decrease amount of RAM (you'd have to open server and take those dimms out), or you can not run free hypervisor on it.

If you really need those 6GB RAM, get some of "essentials" kits.

[abhilashhb]

IIRC free hypervisor is not limited on number of sockets/cores. The only problem in your case is 64GB RAM. So either you decrease amount of RAM (you'd have to open server and take those dimms out), or you can not run free hypervisor on it.

You can run upto 4TB RAM with free ESXi from version 5.5. The 32GB hard limit on memory is gone.

[mike12321]

Thank you. But now I don't understand it anymore.

You wrote IIRC free hypervisor is not limited on number of sockets/cores. The only problem in your case is 64GB RAM.

And then

You can run upto 4TB RAM with free ESXi from version 5.5. The 32GB hard limit on memory is gone.

For me both informations say the contrary.

[JarryG]

Yep, you are right. 32GB limit for fee hypervisor is valid only up to 5.1. Since 5.5 this has been removed...

[abhilashhb]

Sorry i quoted "The IIRC free hypervisor is not limited on number of sockets/cores. The only problem in your case is 64GB RAM".

And told that its no more limited. Bottom line its no more limited

[mike12321]

Thank you. So now I consolidate the answers.

• 1 free ESXi 5.5 hypervisor license works to register the 5.5 hypervisor on a 2 Soket Server with 64 GB of RAM

Please confirm this consolidation with a shot correct or not correct.

Thank you guys.

[abhilashhb · Accepted solution]

Yes that's totally right.

[nkrishnan]

Yes, ESX 5.5 free license version doesn't have RAM limitation, i have seen license works with 8 way virtual SMP