Do I need vCenter?

I'm watching a video on Youtube to get a grasp of the basics of setting up a VMware ESXi server and I've got a bit confused when he loaded vCenter. So I searched Google for ESXi vs vCenter and got even more confused by the forum post I found and the answers given.

If I'm right ESXi is the OS I install onto the server in order to host virtual machines (I'm familiar with running VMware Workstation under Windows to do the same so I take it this replaces Windows)? But I'm confused about vCenter and whether or not I need it once I've installed ESXi? Is vCentre on ESXi the equivalent of Workstation in Windows, so do I need them both?

So I downloaded these files from VMware and would like to know before I attempt to install them if they contain everything I need, or will I have to download other files first? The first is 5.5, the second more clearly 6.0.

> VMware-VMvisor-Installer-201501001-2403361.x86_64.iso
> VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.0.0.update02-3620759.x86_64.iso

I plan to remotely access my host server using vSphere Client which I've used previously, and also try the web client as I know the plan was to drop vSphere in v6 so if it's still included I guess it won't be for much longer.

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Comments

nodal

vCenter is a piece of software used to manage multiple ESXi host machines. Everything is still considered vSphere, but they are more focused on development of the web gui instead of the traditional C# client.

markulous

What are you trying to do exactly? vCenter is going to give you a gui to manage your hosts, your VMs, your storage, switches, sync with AD, etc etc. You're likely going to want to have vCenter installed on a box in order to do this. It doesn't replace Windows, it's Windows software.

GDaines

markulous wrote: »

What are you trying to do exactly?

Load ESXi 5.5 onto a machine, test P2V using VMware Converter to create a client PC as I as I already have previous experience creating client machines from media, and then remotely manage the ESXi server using vSphere Client. This should give me a good feel for creating a VMware environment so I know I can do it in the real world if ever faced with the task (at which point I'd hope my employer would send me on a training course and put me through my VCP6-DCV).

Unless I can get ESXi to run on an AMD dual-core PC (of which I have 4 available) I don't have the hardware to run multiple ESXi host servers, so I would flatten it and start again with ESXi 6.0, in which case I take it that while I 'could' run vCenter, I wouldn't need to?

scott28tt

If you'll only have 1 host, you won't need vCenter.

As soon as you have multiple hosts, and want to leverage vMotion, Storage vMotion, HA, DRS, FT, or many other vSphere features - you'll need vCenter.

Other VMware and non-VMware products that integrate with vSphere most often interface through vCenter also.

vCenter itself can be installed as a set of services on a Windows system, or is also available packed inside a Linux-based VM in the form of the vCenter Server Appliance.

GDaines

scott28tt wrote: »

If you'll only have 1 host, you won't need vCenter.

As soon as you have multiple hosts, and want to leverage vMotion, Storage vMotion, HA, DRS, FT, or many other vSphere features - you'll need vCenter.

I'm very interested in vMotion as I think it would be an essential tool to provide some sort of server redundancy in a multi-host environment. As for the others, I don't know what some of them are or therefore where and if I'd want/need/use them, hence when I get to the stage that I need to know then training would become essential, but to get started in a home lab I'm happy I understand what vCenter is now and that it's something I can look at a little further down the line.

scott28tt

Some useful 1-line descriptions in here: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere/VMW-vSPHR-Datasheet-6-0.pdf