vCenter license requirement

[mtalam79]

Hi folks,

           I need a suggestion on urgent basis. I've two sites (PR & DR) with 2 physical servers. I'm planning to purchase Essential Plus kit which has a vCenter bundled. Now, I want to implement vSphere Replication but for this I need one vCenter at each site. So, will I have to purchase the second vCenter separately in order to use the vSphere replication feature? If Yes then which version (essential or standard) & if not then please give advise on how to purchase licenses for implementing vSphere Replication solution. Many thanks.

Regards,

MT Alam

[Sreejesh_D]

Essential plus at target vCenter will do. Essential doesnt have vSphere Replication feature. And its not require to go for Standard only for vSPhere Replication. See the compare Package kit.

Compare VMware vSphere Kits for Virtualization & Cloud Computing

[mtalam79]

Hi,

   Thanks for the response. With your answer I understand that I'll have to purchase two Essential Plus licenses in order to perform the replication. Secondly, what if we I do not purchase the 2nd Essential Plus kit and purchase just the vCenter Foundation for the second site. Will that allow me to perform the replication?? Need an advise at the earliest possible, many thanks.

Regards,

Tariq Alam.

[a_p_]

From http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf (page 7)

vSphere Essentials and Essentials Plus Kits are self-contained solutions and may not be decoupled, or combined with other vSphere editions.

This means that except for the ROBO Kits you may only manage the hosts included in a kit with the also included vCenter Server.

Regarding your initial question, do you have two hosts in each site or two hosts all together? With only two hosts (up to 3 hosts) and enough bandwidth for replication, you could run replication with a single vCenter Server, there's no need for a second instance.

André

[mtalam79]

Hi Andre,

             Thanks for the response, I have only two host only (one at each site). That means, in my vSphere Replication environment, I'll have one vCenter and two Vsphere Replication Appliance (VRA). Each appliance will be running on each server and both VRA will be registered with the single vCenter server. Let me know if that's how I should move forward with the solution, thanks in advance.

MT Alam.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

There are basically 2 scenarios how vSphere Replication can be configured. With separate vCenter Server instances, you need to deploy one Replication Appliance on each site. With a single vCenter Server you will deploy the Replication Appliance on the target site with access to the target datastore. Whatever you are going to do, please ensure you make yourself familiar with the documentation and the limitations. In a single vCenter Server deployment, you may need to do some manual work, if the vCenter Server isn't available at the time you need to recover the replica.

Also, please be aware that replication does not replace backup!

André

[mtalam79]

Hi Andre,

             Thanks for the clarification and advise. I'll try it out first with the single vCenter and see its steps to recover a machine. Hopefully it'll work out fine and if it does then it'll be a great purchase. The Server 2012 has the same replication feature within the Hyper-V interface, I've tried it and its really simple. It does not require any System Center or any replication device/appliance to manage the replication. All you need is two Server 2012 license and your done.

Thanks,

MT Alam.

[mtalam79]

Hi Andre,

             Your suggestion worked out fine, one will have to manually create a machine at the remote site and use the replicated vmdk to startup the machine. Atleast that's how I did it and it worked for me. Thanks for your support and patience.

Regards,

MT Alam.