Free Monitor ESXi Update 4

[dholdan]

Will the free version of Monitor function 100% with the latest ESXi Update 4 build? If not what will the compromises be? We are trying to decide between Xen and ESXi but will need some type of long-term monitoring solution for ESXi that our budget conscious director does not have to pay for.

Thanks

[Gostev]

Hello, the only known issue is this: http://forum.veeam.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=924, but we should be able to address this in the upcoming Veeam Monitor 4.0 release. Veeam Monitor 4.0 will also have free edition, no new limitations but tons of new functionality, some of which will also be available in free version.

[dholdan]

Thanks for clarifying this Gostev, and I'm looking forward to 4.0, but can you clarify what it means when "you will no longer be able to use the console screen to connect to the machines" actually means? I have not used the product yet and don't want to waste time when evaluating it. How would you connect to the machines if you cannot use the Monitor console? Also when will 4.0 be released?

[Gostev]

In Monitor, we provide ability to access VM console directly from our application (one of the tabs available on VM view essentially). This no longer works with unlicensed ESX 3.5 Update 4. So in order to do this now, you need to open VMware Infrastructure Client and do it in the same way you are doing this today to connect to a VM running on your free ESXi. So it is just a matter of using extra application, not a big deal - just a little convenience that is no longer available for unlicensed hosts. But actual monitoring functionality is not affected for unlicensed hosts - everything else still works.

We plan to release 4.0 in a few weeks.