Vmware Licensing

[amediratta]

The installation requirement is: three physical servers to have ESX servers with 2 cores each. Two of these would be in HA mode.

The licenses purchased are:

vSphere Enterprise for 6 Processors, 1 vCenter Server Standard, 10-pack of View Premier. One purchase per customer site. SnS is required. Renewals will be based on the Acceleration Kit Bundle SnS prices instead of the individual components in the kit.

Is it possible to use them on three separate physical servers and configure two of them in HA mode?

[RParker]

Is it possible to use them on three separate physical servers and configure two of them in HA mode?

Yes and No. You CAN do it, but you would NOT want to. HA means reserving a machine for failover. So if you have 2 servers in HA 1 of them is online the other is standby, waiting for the other to fail, so you would LOSE an entire machine. Therefore I would not use HA for just 2 server.

[NTurnbull]

As HA is enabled on a cluster level you could just add two hosts into a cluster and have the other host separate. Anyone else know something?

Thanks,

Neil

[golddiggie]

Put all three hosts into a single cluster with HA (and any other features you're licensed for such as DRS) enabled. Have HA configured for at least a single host failure, so that the VM's running on that host will be picked up by the two remaining hosts.

I wouldn't have HA enabled on just two of the hosts, but all three. That way, it doesn't matter which host has the issue, it's included in the HA cluster.

VMware VCP4

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[NTurnbull]

Actually, as just mentioned isn't HA part of the Enterprise license? Put all three hosts into the same cluster and run it that way as you'll loose so much functionality you've already paid for

Thanks,

Neil

[golddiggie · Accepted solution]

HA is present in all the license models... The only thing above Enterprise (which the OP has) is the Enterprise Plus with adds distributed switches, 3rd party multipathing and host configuration controls... Since he's licensed for everything else, why not use the single cluster model? The additional items they're licensed for will be included in the product key, such as the vCenter Server and 10 pack of View Premier... You can run those on any of the three ESX/ESXi host servers that will be in the cluster... Using HA across three hosts gives more stability/redundancy than just having it on two. It's also far easier to load balance across three hosts than two.

VMware VCP4

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