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I'm wondering which is the minimal version I would need regarding these points : 1. Have 2 ESXi hosts, datastore located directly in the server (not on a SAN) 2. Would like to be able to use vMotion to transfer VMs to the 2nd server

So my questions are : 1. Can I use vMotion with these server settings, or do I really need a SAN? 2. Minimal version I need to purchase is vSphere Essential Plus (around 4500$ US) or I can purchase another cheaper version(s) that include vMotion?

ESXi-1 is main production server, ESXi-2 is mostly a backup server in case hardware problem would occur on ESXi-1. A Yes/No, use "that" VmWare software reply would be enough for me.

mfinni
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AxeMaster
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1 Answers1

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You need the VMware Essentials Plus package or greater to leverage vMotion capabilities.

This is outlined in the VMware Editions comparison table.

With two hosts and no SAN, you can still perform a "shared-nothing" vMotion between the hosts, but it's only for a scheduled move. If a system fails completely, the VMs residing on the local storage would go with it. Adding shared storage would help.

ewwhite
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  • Kindly appreciate, that's what I was thinking, but wasn't really sure if I was right in my understandings. – AxeMaster May 23 '13 at 23:25
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    In addition, the vSphere Essentials Plus kit includes the vSphere Storage Appliance which will allow you to create a virtual iSCSI SAN from the local storage on your hosts. It essentially creates a "network raid" from the local storage of each host, allowing you some degree of HA (albeit manually) and removes the single point of failure that local storage presents. - http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/vsphere-storage-appliance/faqs.html – joeqwerty May 23 '13 at 23:55