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kellino
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Which version of vCenter to use

We are about to build a 20 host ESX farm for a new environment.

We have decided to deploy ESX 3.5 since vSphere is a bit too new for mission-critical for us. However.....

Since vCenter is backward compatible we could in theory deploy vCenter 4.0 with ESX 3.5 and then only have to upgrade the hosts to ESX4 in the future.

Would just like to hear some feedback from others on whether vCenter 4 with ESX 3.5 is a good fit (what are the risks) for a new 20 host environment.

Thanks!

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AntonVZhbankov
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I have smaller environment, 9 hosts total, but vCenter 4 runs fine with ESX3.5. I have 6 4.0 servers and 3 3.5


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EMCCAe, HPE ASE, MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4/5, VMware vExpert XO (14 stars)
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AntonVZhbankov
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I have smaller environment, 9 hosts total, but vCenter 4 runs fine with ESX3.5. I have 6 4.0 servers and 3 3.5


---

VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

EMCCAe, HPE ASE, MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4/5, VMware vExpert XO (14 stars)
VMUG Russia Leader
http://t.me/beerpanda
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anujmodi1
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If you are planning to use any other vmware products like SRM, VDI(View ) or Lab manager, then you should use VC 3 . Still vShpere4 is not supported by Vmware.

AM,

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Penic_Albin
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If you are planning to use any other vmware products like SRM, VDI(View ) or Lab manager, then you should use VC 3 . Still vShpere4 is not supported by Vmware.

AM,

If you found my answer to be useful, feel free to mark it as Helpful or Correct.

The latest blogs and articles on Virtulization:

http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/amodi

Sorry for correction.

vSphere is supported by VMware. Addon products like View, SRM, Lab manager don't support vSphere 4 vCenter jet.

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AntonVZhbankov
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Actually View runs on vSphere fine if Linked Clones are not used.


---

VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

EMCCAe, HPE ASE, MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4/5, VMware vExpert XO (14 stars)
VMUG Russia Leader
http://t.me/beerpanda
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Penic_Albin
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I know that View runs with vSphere, but it is supported?

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AntonVZhbankov
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No it is not supported. I just wanted to clarify when "not supported" means "doesn't run at all", "runs with partial functionality" and "runs fine, but without guarantee from vendor".


---

VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

EMCCAe, HPE ASE, MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4/5, VMware vExpert XO (14 stars)
VMUG Russia Leader
http://t.me/beerpanda
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anujmodi1
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Penic, Thanks for correcting the sentence. vSphere 4 is supported by Vmware. But addon products are not supported with vSphere completely from Vmware.

AM,

If you found my answer to be useful, feel free to mark it as Helpful or Correct.

The latest blogs and articles on Virtulization:

http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/amodi

Anuj Modi, If you found my answer to be useful, feel free to mark it as Helpful or Correct. The latest blogs and articles on Virtulization: anujmodi.wordpress.com
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Penic_Albin
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So to the main question. If you do not need support for addon products such as View, SRM,... you can use vSphere4 vCenter to manage ESX 3 servers. But dont forget to install licensing server for them, coz with basic install ov vCenter 4 you can not manage licences for ESX3.

Check this doc License Server Configuration for vCenter Server 4.0

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kellino
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Thanks all!

I did some checking and it seems that all the products we will need initially (vHeartbeat, Vizioncore vRanger, etc.) support vSphere.

So I think we may start with vCenter 4, using a seperate license server for the 3.5 hosts (thanks Penic!).

If we find any issues in the first few weeks we should have enough time to downgrade should we discover a reason to.

Thanks!

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