Do I need ESX any more?

[chris_delaney]

Dear All,

I have got a reasonable VI infrastructure with ESX 3.5 and VC 2.5 Enterprise. If I want to introduce ESXi hosts to this infrastructure am I going to be able to use things like VMotion and VCB (assuming the CPUs are compatible etc) between the ESX and ESXi hosts or do I have to buy further licenses?

I'd really appreciate any information you might have as I'm a bit confused by it all at the moment.

Many thanks.

Chris

[RParker]

Your licenses don't change between products. Whatever license you have, you still need doesn't matter which ESX flavor you are using. ESXi FREE version doesn't include ANY licenses, only a stand alone version of the product.

When you add addtional ESXi servers to your VI cluster you still need additional licenses for those.

[chris_delaney]

Thanks for the prompt reply!

So, if I introduce an ESXi machine with the free license I won't be able to manage it with VC or do anything like VMotion? If so then you're saying that I'd have to buy ESX licenses as normal whether I installed ESXi or normal ESX on the hosts?

Many thanks.

Chris

[Troy_Clavell]

So, if I introduce an ESXi machine with the free license I won't be able to manage it with VC or do anything like VMotion? If so then you're saying that I'd have to buy ESX licenses as normal whether I installed ESXi or normal ESX on the hosts?

unless you already have existing available licenses for these features, then the answer is no, which would mean you would have to purchase them.