Vsphere Essentials Question

[Zade]

We currently have 2 systems, both with enterprise licenses (test/live).

These systems are both available in our vsphere client under 2 different datacenters, we have a license for essentials plus, and would like to add an additional datacenter into our current setup with some esxi hosts licensed under essentials plus, is this likely to work if we create a seperate datacenter within our current system?

[shahzadrafiq]

:smileygrin:

[Zade]

hi shahzadrafig. is that a yes?

[Zade]

Can anyone help with this one?

[abhilashhb]

Hi Zade,

What vCenter License do you have? If you are using vCenter server essentilas you will be able to manage just one more host as it limits you to manage 3 physical hosts. You can have one more DC, but you will be able to add just one more host to it.

[a_p_]

Unless you have licensed "vSphere Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Offices" you unfortunately cannot add the hosts to a vCenter Server Standard instance.

from: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf

... vSphere Essentials and Essentials Plus Kits are self-contained solutions and may not be decoupled, or combined with other vSphere editions.

André

[Zade]

Hi Andre,

Thank you for the information that is very helpful, so in theory we would need a vCenter server for our essentials plus license we have, with this in mind would we be able to have this as a datacenter along side our enterprise packages? or is this ruled out because of the difference in licensing.

Would I be right in thinking we would need to connect to a seperate vcenter server if we wanted to manage the essentials plus infrastructure?

Its a shame as we currently have both our test and live systems (which are on two different vcenter servers) available within the same vsphere client.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

To be compliant with licensing (and I think this is also technically enforced) you need to manage the Essentials Kit separately from the Enterprise licensed systems, i.e. using the vCenter Server included in the Kit and manage the environments using two vSphere Client sessions. Depending on the requirements you may consider to upgrade Essentials Plus to Standard licensing which will allow you to add the hosts to an existing vCenter Server (assuming you don't have Foundation licenses, which limits the number of hosts to 3).

André

[Zade]

Thanks for the detailed information Andre, that really makes things clear

[Zade]

Can the essentials package be easily upgraded to the retail package?

[a_p_]

In order to find out which upgrades are available and which one fits best for you, I'd recommend you contact your VMware reseller/partner.

André

[Zade]

Thanks again Andre