To vCenter or not to vCenter???

[Deano82]

Hi All,

Am in the process of planning a server upgrade and looking for some advice.

Currently running esxi 5 on HP  box with 2 vm's (DC and RDS) and all disks are thick provisioned.

Have purchased new HP box and installed esxi 6 u2.

We're running up a new svr 2102 r2 DC (from scratch) and moving RDS (svr 2012) from old to new.

We'll be using the old box for a secondary DC so will be wiping it and installing esxi 6.

Question is, should i start using vCenter as i'll have 2 virtualised servers or am i just creating more work, i've never used used vCenter so probably just creating more work but i have the license (essentials) so why not?

Am i correct in thinking that vcenter will allow me to move vm's between hosts and pool resources?

[rcporto]

Since you already have the license, and more than one box, the vCenter installation will give you many benefits, like create templates, clone virtual machines, migrate between nodes, etc.

So, my recommendation is to install vCenter.

[Deano82]

Thanks Richard,

A question if i may,

If i go with vCenter, i was going to use deploying the template on my main box, if i want to move all vm's across to other server, do i just move vCenter as well? If the main box goes down with vCenter on it, will the other host carry on as normal?

/

[rcporto]

If vCenter goes down, your virtual machine continues running without problem and you can continue manage them using the vSphere Client and connecting directly on vSphere ESXi host. Anyway, what is exactly your license ? Just Essentials or Essentials Plus ?

[Deano82]

‌Jusr essentials