Unsolved
7 Posts
0
231
Can VxRails vcenter for vsphere be used to upgrade existing vcenter instance?
Hello,
I have a customer with an existing vcenter deployed at their primary data center using poweredge servers with IX storage on the backend. They are interested in purchasing VxRail 2 node clusters for remote data centers and using their existing vcenter to manage it, however, in order to do that they need to upgrade their vcenter to vcenter standard. When building out the VxRail quote, I found a line item for vcenter for vpshere. Does anyone know if this line item will allow them to upgrade their existing vcenter? If not, is there another way we can sell them the upgrade license?
DELL-Sam L
Moderator
Moderator
•
6.9K Posts
0
July 21st, 2023 03:00
Hello Plattjs,
Here is a link to the kb article VxRail and Customer-managed VMware vCenter Server (External vCenter) Interoperability Matrix. https://dell.to/46W66YV
Origin3k
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
1.8K Posts
0
July 23rd, 2023 02:00
In short: NO.
When buying a VxRAIL solution the vCenter license is always bundeld.... but every customer have the choice to use a external or the internal(the bundeld one) vcenter. But when using the internal one youre just allowed to manage VxRAIL or Witness nodes and no other kind of ESXi Hosts.
Swapping license keys is a easy task an most likely it would work on a technicaly base but license wise it would be a violation.
Keep in mind that Dell is responceable for supporting "their" vCenter (instance) from a license perspective.
If your customer have no problem with running 2 vcenters on the main site i even see a reason for upgrading the existing one but please ask your Dell sales rep it youre allowed to run the "internal" vCenter instance on top of a non-vxrail infrastructure.
Please verify the requirements for a 2 node vSAN(VxRAIL) cluster because all setups are >=3 nodes in reality. In your case it would be a virtual ESXi as witness node for the 3rd. one.
Earlier this year i see the new VxRAIL multi node chassis (2U) which also includes the witness. There was also a stackable non 19" solution.
Regards,
Joerg