ESX vs ESXi

[fbroussey]

Hi all,
I'm sorry but I just want some clear explanations about the choice of esx vs esxi
I anderstand that Vsphere Hypervisor is not supported.
But could someone give me the limitation(s) of a Licensed Esxi vs ESX. I read that esxi allow no more than 14 replica and that backup on esx is more efficient . Is it true and what are the others limitations?

Thanks for your answer.

Regards

[whynotq]

the one i have hit and am working on currently is that when using ESXi as the target backups are slower due to the requirement of an agent that is usually installed in the COS. obviously ESXi has none so i have been advised to use a Linux VM as a backup target rather than the ESXi host itself. Other than that i see little reason, particuarly from a VMware point, not to use ESXi.

regards

Paul

[TaylorB]

The reason I chose Veeam as a product was because it does not need an agent on the host, period. Because it does not need a host, there is really no negative about running it on ESXi. Also Vmware has discontinued ESX and going forward post 4.1, ESXi will be the only option. Might as well get used to it.

[Vitaliy S.]

Frederic,

Yes, that's correct. For ESXi target hosts replication is limited to 14 restore points.
Here is the existing topic with this question- Replication limited to 14 restore points?

As to your second question then using full blown ESX host as replication target might be better in some situations, but this is not a requirement.
For more information, please look through this link- Replication High Network Utilization

Thanks!

[fbroussey]

Thanks for your answer.

As we will work only on LAN for replication (1gbps) then I think I should start with ESXi, should I ?

Please, Just another point: My design is 2 ESX (i) with a HP P2000 SAN (direct attached) and another ESX(i) in another room on LAN for replication. Veeam BR server will be installed as a VM.In such a case, if I want to use Virtual Appliance mode , I've 2 questions:

- IS it OK to use it with an Essentials Plus Vmware Licence? In such case is the HOT-ADD feature available ? If not, the backup will always failover to network mode, no ?
- Should I put the Veeam VM on the target or source ESX ? If I Have anderstood correctly, If I don't want to failover to Network backup The Veeam Server should be on the source ESX (To access the SAN). But in this case if the san goes down I should be able to recover only the last full replica, is it correct ?

Thanks for your answer.

Regards

[Vitaliy S.]

As we will work only on LAN for replication (1gbps) then I think I should start with ESXi, should I ?

I would still recommended using "full" ESX over ESXi with the current version, as it makes more efficient replication target. But again, this is only recommendation.

- IS it OK to use it with an Essentials Plus Vmware Licence? In such case is the HOT-ADD feature available ? If not, the backup will always failover to network mode, no ?

No, you can use Hot-Add capabilty even with VMware Essentials, please check out this topic for more details: vStorage API in Virtual Appliance mode

- Should I put the Veeam VM on the target or source ESX ? If I Have anderstood correctly, If I don't want to failover to Network backup The Veeam Server should be on the source ESX (To access the SAN). But in this case if the san goes down I should be able to recover only the last full replica, is it correct ?

If you want to use Virtual Appliance replication mode, then you should have a backup server installed on the source side.

In case your SAN goes down, you'll be able to failover to the most current (latest) VM state. Provided that you want to failover to other points in time, then you need to backup SQL Veeam configuration database, so it could be re-used with a new Veeam backup deployment on the DR site.

[fbroussey]

Thanks a lot for your reply.
Veeam Support Team is for me the best support I have ever seen. Professionnalism and very quick answers.
Thanks.