Q:
VMWare ESX vs. Virtual Center
VMware ESX, VMotion, VMware infrastructure, VMware infrastructure Package, Virtual Center, SAN switches Looking at the VMware Infrastructure package. I've already got the SAN + switches, so it'd be a matter of buying server hardware and software licenses.
The SAN I'm using is currently limited to 16 hosts. One of which is a physical server already up and running on it. Another would be the physical VMware box. That would leave 14 connections for virtual machines. I'll subtract another one out for the redundant physical box. That leaves 13 machines I could put on the SAN. Note: I've got a MD3000i SAN that is currently limited to 16 hosts, regardless of whether or not they are physical or virtual.
That is all fine and planned for. However could I setup more virtual machines that are hosted on the physical servers internal hard drives? I would loose VMmotion ability and all of that because they aren't on the SAN, but for these boxes that isn't an issue (test boxes). Or is it a case of all or nothing (either all on the SAN or none)?
Also, when talking about 2 physical boxes and less than 20 virtual machines.....is Virtual Center worth the extra cost? What exactly does Virtual Center provide beyond management tools that scale much better than the default tools that ship with ESX?
Submitted by a User
The SAN I'm using is currently limited to 16 hosts. One of which is a physical server already up and running on it. Another would be the physical VMware box. That would leave 14 connections for virtual machines. I'll subtract another one out for the redundant physical box. That leaves 13 machines I could put on the SAN. Note: I've got a MD3000i SAN that is currently limited to 16 hosts, regardless of whether or not they are physical or virtual.
That is all fine and planned for. However could I setup more virtual machines that are hosted on the physical servers internal hard drives? I would loose VMmotion ability and all of that because they aren't on the SAN, but for these boxes that isn't an issue (test boxes). Or is it a case of all or nothing (either all on the SAN or none)?
Also, when talking about 2 physical boxes and less than 20 virtual machines.....is Virtual Center worth the extra cost? What exactly does Virtual Center provide beyond management tools that scale much better than the default tools that ship with ESX?
Submitted by a User
ASKED:
Nov 17 2008 7:29 PM GMT
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Is VirtualCenter worth the extra cost? It depends if you want to use features that require it like HA, DRS and VMotion. Even with 2 hosts some of the extra features (templates, AD integration, Update Manager, cloning, historical performance monitoring, capacity planner, integrated P2V) are worth it. VMware has some SMB Foundation Pack bundles available for 2 ESX hosts with VirtualCenter bundled at a reduced cost that you might check out
