VMware vSphere 6.0 free versus Essentials versus Open Source? [closed]

Question

We wanted to download a trial of vsphere 6 essentials kit, but when you get a 60 day trail of vsphere, it doesnt include vcenter so you cant use the web control panel, and vmware client doesn't support VMs newer than 9 (so you get error messages). This is very unfortunate.

We were about to give up on vshere as we dont want to buy without trying, when we noticed there is also a free version. We cannot find any info on the limitations of the free version.

In addition to this, in the downloads section, are "open source" versions of most vmware products, which includes things like "open_source_license_vCenter_Server_6.0_GA". Is vsphere and vcenter really open source, and free?

Does anyone know:

1. Is the free version of vsphere 6 the same as the essentials kit version?
2. Does the free version come with vcenter so that the web client can be used? If not its useless, now they have stopped supporting the vsphere client.
3. What is the open source version?
4. there are lots of posts asking for open source alternatives to vsphere. Why is vsphere not mentioned?

We only need one server with 2 sockets, 32GB ram, and no HA.

Answer 1

Wow...

You have this all wrong. I'll try to clarify VMware's product offering.

• VMware vSphere is available for a 60-day trial. That includes all components necessary to install ESXi on your host servers and also download the VMware vCenter server appliance or software for (Windows).

• The current vSphere client can make basic modifications to vmx-10 versioned virtual machines.

• The open source components you see on the VMware downloads page are really intended to satisfy the licensing terms of the open source components used in ESXi.

For what you're doing, you have two options:

• Register and download ESXi free. That will give you most of what you need. There's no central management, nor an ability to manage multiple ESXi hosts.

• Or you can buy the vSphere Essentials kit, which will provide you with the components necessary to manage up to 3 ESXi hosts. This also includes the vCenter console.