licensing

[phillbl]

Hi,

I am a little confused about licensing. at the moment i have a 4 processor license with ha, vmotion etc for esx 3.5. Virtual centre is also used and licensed.

we have purchased some c class blades from hp. we also received 4 HP integrated vmware esx server 3i enterprise edition, 4p licences. so this would mean 16 (plus 4 existing). Im confused with the 3i part of this as this is the cut down version of esx!!

Is it correct that that you use the usb in the pack to obtain the serial number then contact vmware who then issue a key to licence this as ESX 3.5 VI (not the 3i version) or do we have the incorrect version?

Thanks

[krishna11]

I think license keys of ESXi shoudl work with ESX, not required to get another keys, have a try.

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[java_cat33]

If your blades have hard drives you could install ESX standard version (not 3i)

What you should do is create a new license file that contains all your licensed features (20 processors, virtual center etc) - place this new license file on your license server and re-read the file.

[stvkpln]

The bottom line is that, regardless of if you're using ESX or ESXi, if you want the enterprise features, you're going to buy the same exact thing: ESX Enterprise. The only difference, once you're licensed, is whether you want the service console or not. If the servers already have ESXi integrated, I say use it and save yourself the headache of rebuilding with ESX. You're licensed to use either flavor yyou prefer, though, and VC won't care if it's ESX or ESXi.

[phillbl]

thanks for the info above, one final question

is this the correct way?

in order to obtain the license for ESX3 enterprise i have booted from the usb device & made a note of the 25 key serial number. You then go to the vmware website & register the sernail number to receive the license. is this correct or have i got this totally wrong?

Thanks

Phill