Manage ESXi or ESX Essentials hosts with Enterprise VCenter?

[bbricker]

I have a 2 node ESX VI3 Enterprise setup, which I am about to upgrade to VSphere 4 through a SnS renewal. I am then going to purchase 2 brand new servers so I can use Fault Tolerence, and because my existing ESX hosts are 3 years old and I want to make use of the new blazing fast Intel 5500 series chips :smileygrin:

My plan, was to move my existing 2 older physical servers into a non-mission critical role and just run ESXi Free on them. Then I started reading that to use various enterprise-grade VMware compatible backup softwares, I would need to have at least ESX Essentials. Plus, this would mean my 2 non-crit ESX hosts would have VCenter agents, which I hoped would allow me to view them in my VCenter Enterprise console along with my other 2 Enterprise ESX hosts. Then I started reading that Essentials and Essentials Plus licenses were not to be used in conjunction or broken apart with other versions (or phrased something like that). I called VMware licensing and they said I could manage my Essentials hosts with an Enterprise VCenter, but then my Dell rep told me that I could not.

Can someone clear that up for me? Can I buy and use a separate Essentials bundle but view/manage those 2 (up to 3) ESX hosts in my Enterprise VCenter along side with my 2 mission critical ESX servers running Enterprise licenses? If not, does that mean I will have to have 2 separate VCenters, one for my 2-server Enterprise group, and one for my 2-server Essentials group??

Thanks so much

Ben

[AntonVZhbankov]

No, you can't mix essentials with other hosts and manage essenitials hosts with vCenter Standard.

Essentials is a complete solution, vCenter Essentials with ability to manage up to 3 Essentials hosts.

You can buy 2 Standard licenses for old servers and transfer Enterprise to new.

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VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[bbricker]

When you say I "can't mix" does that strictly mean I won't be able to manage the Essentials hosts with my Enterprise VCenter Standard?

Or are you to imply that I cannot even purchase Essentials if I am using Enterprise? Because surely VMware would allow for situations where you need Enterprise for one set of application uses, and just Essentials for another use or say for example a remote site.

[AntonVZhbankov]

You won't be able to manage.

---

VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[thepeoplesvalle]

From http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/editions_comparison.html :

Essentials Plus for Retail / vCenter Server Compatibility :

vCenter Server for Essentials, vCenter Server Foundation & vCenter Server Standard

From this page it looks like it is possible to manage Essential hosts with vCenter Standard ?

[bsier]

I realize this is an older post but I hope this helps someone:

pp2:

Both editions include VMware

vCenter Server for Essentials and can

also be managed by

VMware vCenter Server Standard (purchased

separately)

Thank you

Ben