ESX 4

VMware vSphere is available: Now what do you do?

So now that vSphere is available, how do you get your own copy and upgrade existing licenses? Hopefully, you have already checked if your Service and Support has been properly upgraded or existed prior to May 21, 2009. If so then you are in good shape.

Get your license keys:

1. Log in to your VMware Account by going to http://www.vmware.com, clicking on Account, then clicking on Manage Product Licenses. Continued »

VMware vSphere may require a hardware upgrade

One of the things VMware’s products allow administrators to do is space out hardware upgrades, but that will soon change with the release of VMware vSphere. VMware vSphere’s hypervisor uses a 64-bit kernel. What this means is that vSphere ESX 4 is a 64-bit operating system that requires 64-bit hardware.

Granted, you have probably already upgraded to quad-core technologies which means you are probably safe, but those using dual-core technologies may not be. Case in point: HP DLxx0 G4 platforms. These are somewhere between 32- and 64-bit with EMT64 support, but unfortunately this is not enough to run VMware vSphere 4. You will need actual 64-bit hardware. Hopefully you can attain this with just a CPU change. Continued »