Where Does vCenter Fit In?

[brgnewman]

Removed

[AureusStone]

Yes that is correct.  It is for managing your hosts.

You can install vCenter on a virtual server on your ESXi host, but with only one host it will not offer any advantages.

If you look at the whitepaper section there is a good guide on installing vCenter.

[Josh26]

Hi,

With regards to be a "separate server", it would more likely be a single VM within the environment.

That said, I'd be having words with whoever recommended you buy it for a single server environment.

[mittim12]

The vCenter server is your cenralized management platform for your ESX or ESXi enviornment.  It is also an enabler for things like vMotion, DRS, the configuration of HA, etc.   It's not likely needed on a single ESX environment but as you grow you may want download a trial.  It can be run on a physical server or as a virtual machine.

[brgnewman]

Thanks everyone for your assistance. We're in the process of migrating our finance server (Win2k3 R2) to a VM on our ESXi host, then planning to wipe and install ESXi on the old finance server box - so vCenter will come in useful then.

But, for the time being I have put vCenter within a VM on my ESXi host just so I can see what it's like before I add an additional ESXi host to my organization.

[ipatelvmware]

regardless of the fact that you have a single esx host

With Vcenter, you can :-

clone machines,

Convert machines to templates.

Provision machines from templates.

If you are planning to use these features then you will need vcenter.