Free EsxI - use with SAN

[DLefevre]

Hi,

As system administrator we're started to plan to installation of our new servers and two Equallogic SAN solutions. We bought two VMWare infrastructure entreprise licences (that's was recommended throught our hardware vendor).

During our meetings i have the discussions with my chief why we are not using the free version of EsxI, because the entreprise version cost a lot. My hardware vendor reported that we can'y use the free version to store the vmdk files on the SAN.

I searched for information, but I couldn't find something. Can anybody help me give some information why we should use the free edition instead of the entreprise edition ? Next to vmmotion, high availability,etc.

Thx

[admin]

Yeah ESXi is free but the features are not for the advanced features you need to rob mum purse

http://vmetc.com/2008/08/10/whats-the-difference-between-free-esxi-and-licensed-esxi/

[matuscak · Accepted solution]

The free version will work fine with an Equallogic SAN. What you get with the Enterprise version is the ability to use VMotion and HA and Virtual Center. By the way, VMotion and HA requires Virtual Center, so if your vendor only sold you the Enterprise licenses without a (also expensive) Virtual Center license, you really are at the point where there is almost no difference between the free version and the Enterprise versions.