Two vSphere Essentials Plus Kits: can all hosts be part of same cluster/data center?

Question

Say you have 6 hosts and two vSphere Essentials Plus Kits: can all 6 hosts function as part of the same vCenter (cluster, data center) umbrella or is there a restriction with licensing (i.e. you'd have to go to Standard at that point).

Need functionality of Essentials Plus, but for more than the 3 hosts permitted.

Solution

Nope... Your scenario won't work.

You will need vCenter Standard to manage more than three hosts. If you attempt to license the Essentials Plus hosts under vCenter Standard, you will receive an error like this:

You have a couple of options before resorting to a keygen, though 🐼. You can look into converting your existing Essentials Plus licenses to Standard + a vCenter Standard license. Call VMware and see what you can work out since you've outgrown your existing setup. The $10k US you paid for two Essentials Plus licenses is worth something.

Comments

[gravyface]

Thanks man. Didn't see that anywhere in the VMWare PDFs.

[gravyface]

Haven't bought it yet, just quoting at the moment, but will definitely call VMWare.