Managing an ESXi host through vCenter Server?

[randomnut]

I understand this is possible and requires specific licenses for the ESXi hosts, although i'm finding the information on the VMWare site a bit confusing as to what I need exactly. We have-

1x vCenter Server 4 Standard license

4x vSphere 4 Enterprise licenses (which are managing our 4 ESX hosts on this site)

3 (and soon to be 4) remote sites that have ESXi Single Server

I'd like to be able to manage the ESXi hosts through vCenter as well, is this possible with what we have? If not, can someone direct me as to what we need?

Thanks

[Troy_Clavell]

you will need to have a vCenter agent license available to be able to manage the ESXi. The free version of ESXi does not include a vCenter agent.

[randomnut]

Can these be purchased on their own?...From what I can see you have to purchase a VMWare vSphere 4 Standard license which has the vCenter agent as a part of it...Is that right? Or is there a cheaper method? As these are over $1000 each. Seems a bit drastic for just wanting to have all of the ESXi servers "under one roof" as such.

Thanks.

[Troy_Clavell]

I'm not a licensing specialist. You may have to talk to your VMware Sales Rep, or contact sales directly.

The below links should help

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/editions_comparison.html

http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/2009/07/got-vmware-licensing-questions.html

[MattG · Accepted solution]

You need the standard license per CPU socket per host to be able to add it to vCenter.

You could always create a separate environment and get the Essentials Bundle (up to 3 hosts max) for $500:

http://store.vmware.com/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayPage&Env=BASE&Locale=en_US&SiteID=vm...

So you would have 2 vCenter servers.

-MattG

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[randomnut]

Ok thanks for your help, i think we will give it a miss then as we would want them on the same vCenter. The idea was to have everything accessible on one screen so its easier to manage (at the moment we have to disconnect from vCenter and connect to each ESXi host individually with vSphere), but seems a bit too pricey for that luxury.

Thankyou anyway.