VMWare Essentials vCenter Functionality Restrictions?

[trg1]

Greetings!

I'm contemplating purchasing VMWare Essentials for our SMB - primarily because of our requirement to easily backup/restore vm's, and also to fairly easily move vm's between hosts. From what I've read, vCenter Server is required to migrate and clone vm's.

Are there any functionality restrictions in the Essentials version of vCenter Server (other than it is restricted to only managing the 3 ESXi hosts purchased under the Essentials license).

While I am evaluating vCenter Server, the evaluation is of the full vSphere suite, so I can't easily tell what functionality will not be present in Essentials.

Thanks for your comments!

[Kasraeian]

Hi,

Check this document, It will tell you which feature you will have and which you wouldn't.

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MCTS, VCP

[danm66]

I've always liked this link for understanding what each license level unlocks. http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/editions_comparison.html

[Kasraeian]

Hi, thanks for link, from now on I'll post this to link together, so everyone will have easier feature comparison and price comparison (with normal feature comparison).

By the way, what do you mean by , do you want to do live migration (moving when OS is powered on - vMotion)? if you need vMotion for your work, the Essential Version wouldn't answer your need as the feature is available from Advanced version and up. (according to here and this link.)

>Greetings!

>I'm contemplating purchasing VMWare Essentials for our SMB - primarily because of our requirement to easily backup/restore vm's, and also to fairly easily move vm's between hosts. From what I've read, vCenter Server is required to migrate and clone vm's.

-= If you found this note/reply useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful" =-

-= If there's any mistake in my notes, please correct me! =-

-= Thanks =-

MCTS, VCP

[trg1]

Thats for your comments - unfortunately, I don't think I was clear enough in my original question.

When I look at the vSphere Basic System Administration manual to understand how to migrate a virtual machine, there are 4 different methods identified:

1) Cold migration (migrated a vm between hardware hosts.)

2) Warm migration ( the vm is suspended during the migration between hosts.)

3) VMotion migration (the vm continues to operate during the migration between hosts.)

4) Storage VMotion (the vm continues to operate during the migration between datastores.)

I'm interested in being able to do #1 and #2 - cold and warm migration. I know that both of these will allow me move the VM between datastores as well as between hosts (which is important as I plan on using local datastores for the near future). I also know that Warm migration has significant CPU compatibility requirements between the hardware hosts as well.

I know that VMotion and Storage VMotion are not included in Essentials.

What I don't know is if Warm Migration is included in Essentials - that type of migration is important to me.

In addition, I'd also like to know if I can create templates, deploy VMs from these created templates, and clone VMs using Essentials.

I've been doing a lot of research to better understand what the features and limitations of the Essentials package. As VMWare does not provide a trial of Essentials (but does trial the full product), I can't discover what little "gotcha's" exist ahead of time...other than asking questions in the community forums!

As always, I do appreciate anyone sharing their time and expertise!

Thanks - Joe

[danm66]

In terms of licensing, there are only two types of migration...cold and hot/vmotion. suspended vm's are considered cold because there is no running state on the host...the state is saved in a file on the datastore.

Templates and cloning are default operations available in all levels of vCenter licensing.

HTH

[trg1]

Danm66,

Ah - that's what I was hoping to hear!

Thanks for confirming this for me!

-Joe

[sfhsfredj]

Sorry excuse my lack of knowledge, but doesn't VMware Essenstials license up to three physical box with up 2 physical CPUs for each box regardless of the number of cores?

[DSTAVERT]

Maximum of 6 cores per processor.

[sfhsfredj]

Thank you!

[DSTAVERT]

Welcome.