Can you manage VMware Essentials from vCentre Standard

[TheGaffer]

I have a vSphere 4 Standard environment and I need to move a VM into a specific single server (which has a minimal configuration in order to minimise the Cracle licencing cost).

The move to this server is as an alternative to V2P.  I'm happy to say goodbye to vMotion, HA andthe CBT API for this server.

And I'm only going to have one VM on this server.  It is rather a waste of a server (Thankyou Oracle).  I'd rather not burn enterprise ESX licences too.

So I want to install it using a cheap Essentials licence.

But the question is:  Can I manage a VMware Essentials host from vCentre Standard?

I can't find anything at vmware.com that says that I can't.  But then, I can't find anything that says that I can either...

Do I have to buy the full Standard licence even for things that are not going to use all that functionality?

Andrew

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Community,

maybe this will clarify/answer your question:

from the EULA http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/esx_esxi_eula.html

c) VMware vSphere Essentials and VMware vSphere Essentials Plus

If you have licensed VMware vSphere Essentials or VMware vSphere Essentials Plus, the following additional license terms apply:

VMware licenses VMware vSphere Essentials or VMware vSphere  Essentials Plus editions (collectively "Editions") to you solely for  managing up to three (3) server hosts and your use of these Editions is  limited to servers with up to two processors. For these Editions, the  server hosts must be managed by the VMware vCenter Server that is  provided with these Editions, and that same VMware vCenter Server cannot  be used to manage other server hosts not included with these Editions.

So the answer to your question is: "No, you can't."

André

[vmroyale]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

Also, check out p.4 of the "VMware vSphere 4.1 Pricing, Packaging and Licensing Overview" document, where it states:

"The kits are self-contained solutions and may not be decoupled or combined with other VMware vSphere editions."

Good Luck!