vCenter manage ESX 3i

[chaoyuan]

I will using vCenter to manage ESX 3i server , what license need to purchase ??:|

[lamw · Accepted solution]

You can get ESXi and vCenter with the Foundation License to start with

This chart should give you a good idea of what's license with each edition, you can always call VMware sales and get a quote

Here's a pretty good deal mentioned by Dave Mishchenko

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

VMware ESXi Management Kit Promotion

Cost-Effective ESXi Management for Small IT shops

This kit is ideal for small companies that have installed the ESXi hypervisor and are ready to deploy an easy, cost-effective management tool to simplify infrastructure operations.

The ESXi Management Kit includes:

• vCenter Server Foundation

• vCenter Agents for 3 hosts

• 1 year software subscription

• Limited for use with 3 ESXi hosts

$495

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

[chaoyuan]

Thanks for your help.:8}

If I purchase Foundation license , I need reinstall or upgrade ESX 3i to ESX 3.5 Foundatioin?

Message was edited by: chaoyuan

[ShanVMLand]

You dont need to reinstall the ESX. You can combine both (new&old) license together and update it.

Shan

[trg1]

This management kit sounds like a good start for a small shop (like mine). I'm hoping that someone might be able to clear a few things up for me, before I purchase it.

1) Does it support snapshots, templates, clones, etc.?

2) Does it include the Patch Management functionality (if not for the guests, at least for the ESXi hosts)?

3) Does it allow SNMP to function?

Thanks for your help!

-Joe

[lamw]

1) Snapshots are available from the ESX/ESXi host perspective, you can do this through the VI Client connecting to an individual host or to vCenter managing a collection of hosts. Templates and Cloning is a vCenter feature and will be available by connecting from your VI Client to vCenter.

2) Patch management is supported by VMware Update Manager (both host/guest), I believe this is an add-on, not by default in this package

3) SNMP is a feature of the host but you also have the option of setting up SNMP for your vCenter

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

[trg1]

Thanks for the quick response!

It would be nice if the management kit would also manage the updates for the ESXi hosts - from what I've read, it's rather convoluted to manually patch them.

It's good to know that SNMP is enabled with this - I'll have to order it, and see how things work.

Thanks - Joe

[rpayton]

We just bought the $495 special to manage both of our ESXi 3.5u2 servers. Using the update manager, I updated the firmware on our remote host, and found out u4 was released, to which it got upgraded. A (relatively) quick reboot later and I got one ESXi host running u4 and the other one waiting to be updated.

Nothing hard about updating ESXi at all .....

[trg1]

rpayton,

Thanks for clearing this up for me! It's very good to know that the Management Kit will handle hpdates for the ESXi hosts...makes the host maintenance much simpler.

Thanks for sharing your experiences - now it's off to spend more money!

-Joe