Move Production ESXi hosts to Production vCenter Server

[tvanslambrouck]

Hi guys! I have what I think is a licensing question. We currently have 9 locations in our network. 2 locations have vsphere enterprise plus licenses and the rest have vsphere essentials. At the two locations that have enterprise plus, they each also have a vcenter server standard license. I am looking to bring everything into one vcenter so I can manage everything from one location, rather then going to each remote esxi host via a new tab. My understanding is I cannot add a vsphere essentials host to a vcenter standard vcenter. My question is, would it make sense to convert these vsphere essential esxi hosts over to remote office branch licenses? Would I lose any functionality? Would it wipe out any of the virtual networking, datastores or iSCSi connections?

Thanks!

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

Robo licensing might indeed be a good choice for you depending on the number of VMs, and the locations (licensing may need to be taken into account if locations are in other countries/regions).

There's nothing that I'm aware of that you lose (regarding functionality), or need to reinstall, when you change the license key. Binaries are the same for all editions.

André

[tvanslambrouck]

Do you know the difference between the robo licensing and vsphere essentials? I can't find a real direct comparison other than essentials you pay per socket and have unlimited VMs but robo you pay per vm but can have unlimited sockets.

[a_p_]

Please find the features for the different editions in https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/vsphere/vmw-flyr-vsphererobo-uslet...

André

[tvanslambrouck]

I've seen that. I just wanted to know if there was a more direct comparison between vSphere 6 Essentials vs the Robo licenses. From the datasheet, It looks like the robo licenses offer more features and are cheaper. So I'm looking for "the catch".

[a_p_]

It looks like the robo licenses offer more features and are cheaper.

I assume that you compare the price with that for an "Essentials Plus" Kit? Anyway, all shown Robo editions have more features that Essentials, or Essentials Plus, but come fo 25 VMs, i.e. no unlimited VMs, no included vCenter Server.

André

[tvanslambrouck]

I already have vcenter standard setup at my primary location and between the 7 remote sites there are only about 20 vms in total and i'm currently not using vcenter at those sites (since they are essentials) so this sounds perfect!

Thanks for your help André!