Pawel_Kowalski
asked on
vSphere Server vs vSphere client (New To VM Questions)
I am looking to visualize my very small environment so that I can use Veeam backup (Backup Exec 2012 has been a nightmare) and I hope to be able to make live migrations of virtual machines to help with disaster recovery.
Veeam has a enterprise license for fairly cheap, $1,200 a host. Very simple.
However, vSphere licensing is a web that I can't seem to untangle. They have 2 versions of the server from what I can tell, standard ($6K) and foundation ($2K).
In addition it seems I need "vSphere Standard" which goes for another $1K.
Can someone explain what each component is or point me to a simple document that explains all of this? If I buy vSphere server foundation and vSphere Standard can I live migrate virtual machines? What about the free eSXI 5.1 server (which I am using now)? Would simple buying vSphere without the foundation server allow me to do these migrations?
Do I need a vSphere server and client license for the target host which would only be there for disaster recovery?
Sorry if these are dumb questions, but I am unable to completely figure the license scheme out. Help would be greatly appreciated.
I have SBS 2011 which only needs to be one guest OS. I also have a physical SQL server that I can keep physical for now, as it's not part of any domain. Finally I have a server I would like to be the recovery server if something happens to my production environment (ideally this server will sit off-site and I will be able to do live migrations to it).
Thanks.
Veeam has a enterprise license for fairly cheap, $1,200 a host. Very simple.
However, vSphere licensing is a web that I can't seem to untangle. They have 2 versions of the server from what I can tell, standard ($6K) and foundation ($2K).
In addition it seems I need "vSphere Standard" which goes for another $1K.
Can someone explain what each component is or point me to a simple document that explains all of this? If I buy vSphere server foundation and vSphere Standard can I live migrate virtual machines? What about the free eSXI 5.1 server (which I am using now)? Would simple buying vSphere without the foundation server allow me to do these migrations?
Do I need a vSphere server and client license for the target host which would only be there for disaster recovery?
Sorry if these are dumb questions, but I am unable to completely figure the license scheme out. Help would be greatly appreciated.
I have SBS 2011 which only needs to be one guest OS. I also have a physical SQL server that I can keep physical for now, as it's not part of any domain. Finally I have a server I would like to be the recovery server if something happens to my production environment (ideally this server will sit off-site and I will be able to do live migrations to it).
Thanks.
ASKER
So with VMware vSphere Essentials that will cover the license for the 2 hosts (ESXi servers), 2 or 3 guests, all for $600?
Will that allow me to do live migration to a backup host/guest that I can turn on if my production host/guest goes down? I do have NAS drives that I plan to use as part of my backup strategy and for some data storage (shares, maybe exchange) by utilizing iSCSI , but for storing the guest VMs I am likely going to use internal storage local to the computer. Will that be okay or do the guest systems have to be stored on shared storage as well?
Thanks for the quick reply.
Will that allow me to do live migration to a backup host/guest that I can turn on if my production host/guest goes down? I do have NAS drives that I plan to use as part of my backup strategy and for some data storage (shares, maybe exchange) by utilizing iSCSI , but for storing the guest VMs I am likely going to use internal storage local to the computer. Will that be okay or do the guest systems have to be stored on shared storage as well?
Thanks for the quick reply.
So with VMware vSphere Essentials that will cover the license for the 2 hosts (ESXi servers), 2 or 3 guests, all for $600?
Yes, unlimited VMs, dependant upon server resources.
No VMware vSphere licenses required for Guests, you can have as many Guest OS, that the servers can host, e.g. that's based on resources!
You clearly still need licensed from the Vendor for Guest OS, e.g. Microsoft.
Will that allow me to do live migration to a backup host/guest that I can turn on if my production host/guest goes down? I do have NAS drives that I plan to use as part of my backup strategy and for some data storage (shares, maybe exchange) by utilizing iSCSI , but for storing the guest VMs I am likely going to use internal storage local to the computer. Will that be okay or do the guest systems have to be stored on shared storage as well?
vMotion or Live Migration is of no use, if a Host Fails! Because your VM is still on that host.
VMware HA, provides a function of, restarting VMs on another Host should a Host Fail.
VMware vSphere Replication or Veeam Backup and Replication, can replicate VMs to another host.
Essentials, does not include licenses for VMware HA or vMotion.
Essentials Plus, is an updated version of Essentials, which includes HA and vMotion, Replication and Backup.
You also need to ensure, that ALL hardware Server and SAN/NAS is on the HCL.
Check the VMware Hardware Compatability Lists HCL here
The VMware Hardware Compatibility List is the detailed lists showing actual vendor devices that are either physically tested or are similar to the devices tested by VMware or VMware partners. Items on the list are tested with VMware products and are known to operate correctly.Devices which are not on the list may function, but will not be supported by VMware.
http://www.vmware.com/go/hcl
ASKER
Is it possible for Veeam to simply replicate to a VMDK file on a off-site host (assuming the bandwidth is there) and we can turn on that VM if the production one goes down? The off-site host would be ESXi, would have it's own internal storage, hopefully the VMDK would be on that storage, and we can power it on. Is the essentials license with Veeam enterprise enough to accomplish this? I am not looking for something that needs to come on right away if the main site fails (as nice as that would be). Turning on a backed up VM that Veeam generated would be great. If not I can even live with doing a restore using Veeam if the guest VM would not be available to simply turn on at the backup host.
Would the essentials vspehere license and a Veeam enterprise license work for this?
All the gues OS operating systems have licenses, those I'm not worried about.
Thanks.
Would the essentials vspehere license and a Veeam enterprise license work for this?
All the gues OS operating systems have licenses, those I'm not worried about.
Thanks.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Thank you so much, sorry to have asked the question a million different ways, just wanted to make sure before we purchased the licenses.
That's not an issue, ask as many as you like.
Andy
Andy
Is available in Foundation and Standard.
THe difference, foundation manages up to a maximum of 3 Hosts.
Standard can manage unlimited hosts (within reason, I think 1000).
The OS, is called VMware vSphere, sometimes referred to as ESXi, or VMware vSphere Hypervisor.
This is available in Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus.
Do you have more than one Host for Live MIgrations and vMotion, and a Shared Storage NAS or SAN ?
You cannot use any third party backup product with FREE VMware vSphere.
The cheapest Entry level solution for $600 (approx) is VMware vSphere Essentials, this is a license for 3 Hosts with 2 processors each, and vCenter Server limited to a max of 3 hosts!
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf