ESXi platform Independent? nope.

[Jaqui_G]

At least one other computer to act as a management station. This computer must

be running Windows, have network access to the ESX Server 3i, and have Internet

access.

This is a critical issue.

no Windows system to be able to do this.

guess I'll not bother downloading the installer, since the tools to manage everything are not accessible without windows.

[VirtualNoitall]

OK

[lamw]

If you don't care for a GUI, you can use VMware VIMA (RHEL 5.2 Virtual Appliance)

If you don't want to download that, you can install the RCLI for (Windows or Linux) to manage or use the VI Perl Toolkit.

If you don't want to do that, you an enable the "unsupported" SSH console and semi-manage, which is not recommended for your day to day administration.

Oh ... 4th option ... one day hopefully, Linux VI Client!

You do have a few options =]

[Jaqui_G]

To bad the documentation doesn't mention anything about those options, it would have then given me the information needed to know that my open source os only policy is still viable for using ESXi.

It only says you must have a windows system to manage everything.

[lamw]

Well it's partially true, if you're going the open route and possibly free route, you can use the standard VI Client which currently only supports Windows. If you're running small environment or for development/testing, you don't need to setup a Virtual Center which is only supported on Windows and specifically Windows Server 2003.

Now having said that, if you want to enable all the neat features such as HA, DRS, VMotion, SVMotion ,etc, etc ...you really need to have a Windows Server 2003 for your Virtual Center as those options are only viable with more than 1 ESX or ESXi Host and being managed by VMware Virtual Center aka VMware vCenter.

There are no details on UNIX/Linux vCenter or even UNIX/Linux VI Client, but I think that's something everyone has been asking for, so you're not forced to have a Window Server if you're an all UNIX/Linux shop.

[Craig_Baltzer]

Well your "open source OS only" policy was violated the moment you installed ESXi Xen is where you need to be if you're trying to stay all open source...