free ESXi with Virtual center?

[adfaafscaca]

HI all,

I heard that I can't manage free ESXi with Virtual center.

There are another kinds of ESXi which are ESXi standard and ESXi enterprise.

There are also purchasable not free.

I can't manage ESXi stadard or Enterprise with Virtual Center ?

thanks

[Dave_Mishchenko]

I've moved your post to the ESXi forum. To manage an ESXi host with VirtualCenter, you must purchase a Virtual Infrastructure license for the host which would include the VirtualCenter Agent license. That is available with the VI Foundation / Standard or Enterprise license. When you purchase one of those licenses, you have the right to install either ESXi or ESX regular.

In addition to the VI licenses, you would also have to purchase a VirtualCenter license. You might also want to look at the VC bundle licenses. For example, you can get VC Foundation and 3 VI Foundation licenses for $3000. VC Foundation is limited to managing 3 hosts, but it can be upgraded to the full version.

http://www.vmware.com/products/vi/buy.html

[adfaafscaca]

thanks for your reply.

If I have ESXi standard(not free), I can manage this with Virtual center without any license purchase?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Yes - if you have a VI standard license (and VC license as well) then you'll be Ok to manage your ESXi host.

[jose_maria_gonz]

Hi There,

Just out of curiosity, if you only have one ESXi server, why would you need VirtualCenter for?

rgds,

J.

[adfaafscaca]

thanks dave,

you mean

If I purchase ESXi standard or ESXi Enterprise, I have almost same right of VI standard or VI enterprise?

[adfaafscaca]

Hi,

If One has many ESXi servers and one Virtual center license...

[Dave_Mishchenko]

There's no specific ESXi standard or enterprise license. There's just VI Foundation, Standard or Enterprise. Those licenses allow you to install ESX or ESXi - it's entirely your choice.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Here's a feature list for the various versions. VC is a harder sell with just a single ESXi host. If you needed the ability to easily clone VMs and manage templates, needed a web interface (Linux client access to VM consoles, alerting, long term performance data, needed to assign granular permissions to individual VMs then you might need to look at VC. But otherwise, for a single host just using the VI client would be sufficient in most cases.

Licensed features - page 61 - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3i_i/r35/vi3_35_25_3i_i_setup.pdf