Ressource Pools without vSphere DRS

[SaschaRD]

Hello everyone,

we lately bought a Virtualization for Small Businesses - VMware vSphere Essentials Kit ; after the installation and configuration of VMware vCenter we configured the following hierarchy:

• datacenter1 ->
  • cluster1 ->
    • ressource pools
      • vms
    • server1 (esxi 6.5), server2 (esxi 5.5. needs to be updated to 6.5), server3 (esxi 5.5. needs to be updated to 6.5)

On the cluster-object we configured our ressource pools for that we set up  the vSphere DRS in "full automatic" mode and disabled the vSphere HA function (with the evaluation license), so far so good.

server1 has been updated from 5.5 to 6.5 and after that I tried to add the esxi server licence to server1 which failed with the message that we dont have the vSphere DRS license; without the vSphere DRS it is not possible to create resource pools on the cluster-object. That is a huge issue for us because we builded a strict hierarchy with the resource pool (like test-systems, sales-systems, development-systems, etc.) and with that structure we did the user access (development can not see or access vms of the sales department and so on).

It is possible to create resource pools without vSphere DRS on an cluster-object? Otherwise we have to build the following hierarchy:

datacenter1 ->

• server1 (esxi 6.5)
  • ressource pool
    • vms
• server2 (esxi 5.5. needs to be updated to 6.5)
• server3 (esxi 5.5. needs to be updated to 6.5)

but with that structure we have the "same" ressource pool on each server as we have it right now; we wanted to made the administration easier with the top hierarchy, 1 ressource pool include vms of all 3 servers e.g..

I already asked at the VMware Support Center if its possible to buy the vSphere DRS license; but its only included in VMware operations 😕

thanks and cheers, Sascha

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

Resource pools are basically not the way to maintain hierarchies like you say (unless you want/need to limit resources). What you may do instead, is to create folders in the "VMs and Templates" view,  on which you then can set the required permissions.

André

[conyards]

To add to André's response,

You can't create resource pools without vSphere DRS.  The first version that I believe a DRS licence is available is vSphere Enterprise Plus.  So if you require a simple hierarchy, André's suggestion is the way to go.

Simon

[SaschaRD]

Hi André, Hi Simon,

perfect! with the folders we can build up the logical hierarchy as needed and set the required permissions to the users and groups.

Have a nice day.

cheers, Sascha