I'm planning use vmware to upgrade some of very aged server instead replace with all new bunch of server. VMWare vSphere sounds great but because of low budget I can't afford for both licenses and SANs. Without SAN, is vSphere worth the price? As I know without SAN, the VMWare HA, VMontion, FT is unavailable. So, do I need vSphere or only ESXi free version assume that I only need backup vm daily? Do you know any completed solution about backup on ESXi 4?
TIA,
-Gk
There are three components you need to consider;
So really it comes down to your downtime requirements, if you NEED HA, DRS, vMotion, FT to increase your service uptime then you need ESX licences, a vCenter licence and shared storage. If you don't need these functions you don't need any of these extra-cost items.
Oh and there are free backup solutions for unlicenced hosts, such as GhettoVCB.
You could start with ESXi free. If HA (High Availability) is required you can purchase vSphere Essential Plus license that enables you to use up to 3 hosts (physical servers), with no more than two CPU with no more than 6 core per CPU.
Of course, you need a vmware certified shared storage.
HA could be a good fault tolerant solution: if a physical server fails, all its virtual server reboot on the surviving server(s).