What exactly is in the VMware vSphere Essentials Kit

[Depicus]

Yes I have looked at the pages and there seems to be a lot of xyz but no definative list of what is in the essestials kit or even the pro kit.

Idealy what backup software but would be nice to know everything included.

Thinware vBackup says it needs VMware Consolidated Backup but Google takes me to the page on this and when I go to buy it sends me to info about the versions of VM but nothing in the Kits except Data Backup API - tis most confusing for a new user.

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the COmmunity - VMware vSphere Essentials ia bundled package - that includes licenses for up to 3 ESXi hosts with 2 CPU per host, 32 GB of vRAM entitlement per CPU and a vCenter license that will only allow you to manage 3 ESXi hosts total. There are two levels of the Essentials Kit - Essentials and Essentials Plus - http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/small-business/essentials-kits.html - since backup is a concern you will need to look at the Essentials Plus -

VMware Consolidated Back UP (VCB) has been replaced by vDR - vSphere Data Recovery which is the new tool that allows for online backups of VMs without affecting VM performance -

[vmroyale]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

What version of vSphere are you working with?

VCB is no longer supported in vSphere 5, so if you are going with it you might need to find a different backup solution. vSphere 5 utilizes the VMware vStorage APIs, which Thinware vBackup says it will support soon.

As far as what is included in any kit, check out:
http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/small-business/compare-kits.html

You might also want to look into the VMware Data Recovery that is included with the Essentials Plus kit. The cost difference could be a wash, once you factor in buying additional backup software and/or agents.

Good Luck!

[Depicus]

Yes both great answers but none of those pages tell me what software is included in the bundles, yes it talks about product features and product components but nothing about what software is included.

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

The Essentials Kits is a bundle of licenses. The kit include vSphere processor licenses and vCenter Server for Essentials for an environment of a maximum of 3 hosts (up to 2 CPUs each) and maximum pooled vRAM capacity of 192GB. Scalability limits of Essentials Kits are product-enforced and cannot be extended other than by upgrading the entire kit to a higher-end bundle. Essentials Kits are self-contained solutions and may not be decoupled or combined with any other VMware vSphere editions.

1. you can download and run up to 3 ESXi 5 hosts with 2 CPUs
   
2. you can download vCenter server and run a single instance of vCenter
   
3. you can download VMware Data Recovery to be able to backup your VMs without impacting the VM performance
   

Hope this helps

[Depicus]

Just to say you don't get Data Recovery in the Essentials pack only the Essentials Plus

[1q2w3e4r]

Also looking for info on Essentials kits. I've done a few deployments with Enterprise (and now Enterpise Plus) so am familiar with the full feature set, but now doing a job for a very small company so want to recommend the Essentials plus kit. We only need 3 basic ESX servers with vCenter and vMotion, so it looks like it will do the job. Is there limitations with vCenter for Essentials (ie how is this different). I read the comparison charts so it seems like it has what I want, and at $5k for the suite is seems well priced for our requirements. Is there any gotchas to look out for?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Since you've review the feature charts you'll have a good idea of the functionality offered.  Three significant other factors are:

- the vCenter edition included is limited to managing 3 hosts.  If you plan to go over 3 host then you need to upgrade the vCenter edition.

- hosts are limited to 2 CPUs each

- the kit comes with 192 GB of vRAM entitlement.  If you're going with 3 hosts of 64 GB then you'll be Ok, but if you spec out 3 x 128 GB then you won't be able to use all that memory.

[mquasiemi]

- the kit comes with 192 GB of vRAM entitlement.  If you're going with 3  hosts of 64 GB then you'll be Ok, but if you spec out 3 x 128 GB then  you won't be able to use all that memory.

Is it possible to buy 2 Essentials licences so that we can have 2 servers with 192GB on each server?

another question is:

I want to run 2 of our old servers with 32GB RAM on ESXi vSphere 5. I can run the older servers with max 32 GB of Ram on the free version of the ESXi 5 Hypervisor, right?

Is this scenario possible?

*1 new Server with 192GB RAM > vsphere 5 Essentials licence

*2 old Servers with 32 GB on each Server > Free ESXi 5

Could it be that I can't administrate the 2 old Servers on the vCenter because they are not in the essentials licence area but I still can run the servers on the free hypervisor?

Thanks for your help.