ESX vs ESXi

[AsherN]

I'm looking to build a small environment. Initially (this fiscal year), 2 ESX servers attached to a SAN. I will be licensing ESX 3.5 standard to get the HA feature and vCenter foundation. Next year, I'll be adding a 3rd host, in another facility, with a SAN, to do replication and adding SRM.

I'm thinking of actually using ESXi 3.5 on the hosts to take advantage of the diskless setup on the servers.

What are the downsides of running ESX1 as opposed to ESX?

And will my idea even work (run ESXi but license ESX)

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the Forums - yes your idea will work ESXi in essence is the same hing as ESX the only difference is ESXi does not have the service console. Th service console is a virtual machine that automatically loafd snf dtsrtd up on your ESX Server - it is through the Services Console tat you can contro your ESX server or via Virtual Center - ESXI this functionality is pushed down tot he vmkernel - the hyperviisor of your ESX/ESXi server - with that being said it also in the service console that 3rd party develops will use the SC to add drivers and agents so you will a sider variety of software agents available to mange your ESX hostrs over an ESXi Hosts but our partners are workign to correct that -

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[Texiwill]

Hello,

Moved to the Enterprise Strategy and Planning forum.

Instead of a Service Console there is a management appliance however so you can still manage ESXi through the normal set of tools.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs -- Top Virtualization Security Links -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

[kjb007]

The license for ESX/ESXi are equivalent. You can use the same license for either type of ESX server.

-KjB

VMware vExpert

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

also to add to what everyone else has to offer, is this KB, , which you may find useful as well.