VMWare Licensing: one host, 2 Xeon CPU, and 256GB ram

[lsorel]

Hello,

Currently I have this server:

• Bi-Xeon E5 2670 v2 (20 cores 40 threads)
• 256 Go DDR3 ECC
• 3x 500 Go SSD RAID5

I'm planning to use ESXI 5.5/6.0 free, but i'm not very aware of included limitations with it. Some questions.

1) ESXI 5.5/6.0 free seems to have vCPUs limit. Do you know the number of vCPUs allowed? Is such limit reasonably compatible with my CPU?

2) Security updates seems hard to deploy with the free versions (no simple command like apt-get update && apt-get upgrade). Is it still true with the paid versions?

3) To start, I'm very interested in the Kit Essentials paid version for its low prive. However, is such version fully compatible with my hardware whitout any limitation? What's the real advantages over the free version?

Thank you very much.

[MKguy]

1) ESXI 5.5/6.0 free seems to have vCPUs limit. Do you know the number of vCPUs allowed? Is such limit reasonably compatible with my CPU?

The vCPU limit applies to the maximum number of vCPUs per VM. For the free license, this is 8 vCPUs for a single VM, but it should be sufficient for most workloads. If you had a workload that would require more vCPUs then you would probably be buying a license for other reasons anyways.

2) Security updates seems hard to deploy with the free versions (no simple command like apt-get update && apt-get upgrade). Is it still true with the paid versions?

The paid versions (with vCenter that you have to buy separately or buy a bundle like Essentials) come with Update Manager that integrates into the Client GUI and simplifies patching.

But updating a standalone ESXi host is actually pretty simple and can be accomplished with a single command like:

esxcli software profile update -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml -p ESXi-6.0.0-20150404001-standard

Also see:

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.upgrade.doc%2FGUID-E51C5DB6-...

Installing patches on an ESXi 5.x host from the command line

3) To start, I'm very interested in the Kit Essentials paid version for its low prive. However, is such version fully compatible with my hardware whitout any limitation?

There are no hardware compatibility differences between licenses. The ESXi build is always the same, the restrictions are purely based on which license you attach (the free license is limited to 2 sockets though, which is ok in your case). Check the HCL to see if your hardware is supported:

VMware Compatibility Guide: System Search

What's the real advantages over the free version?

The essentials kits give you vCenter with Update Manager, they give you additional ESXi features, writable API access (for scripting, 3rd party products like backup applications) and much more.

The more expensive essentials plus kit also gives you HA and live migration, but to take advantage of that you obviously need multiple hosts and shared storage.

See:

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Essentials-Kits-DataSheet.pdf

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf

[lsorel]

Great. Thank you very much for this complete answer.