vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 is reducing the dependency of Windows operating system for vCenter server Install. With VCSA 5.5 on Embedded database can manage 100 hosts and 3000 Virtual Machines. vCSA reduces lot of administrative efforts by reducing efforts needed for windows patching, software update and management of Guest OS on windows operating system. It is necessary to understand the difference between the vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 and vCenter server 5.5 installed on windows Server. This post will explain you the detailed difference between the 2 items.
Feature | vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 | vCenter Server 5.5 on Windows |
Can be Deployed | Only as a Virtual Machine | Can be installed on Physical or Virtual windows Machine |
Operating System | Preconfigured Linux-based virtual machine | vCenter 5.5 requires 64 Bit OS and 64 bit DSN: Windows Server 2012 (64 bit) Windows Server 2008 Sp2 (64 bit) Windows Server 2008 R2 Sp1 (64 bit) Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit) |
Database | PostgreSQL for the embedded database Supports Oracle Database | SQL Server 2005 (SP4) (Standard\Enterprise) (32-bit & 64-bit)SQL Server 2008 (R2 SP2, R2 SP1) (Express\standard\Enterprise\Datacenter) (32-bit & 64-bit) SQL Server 2012 (SP1) (Enterprise\Standard) (32-bit & 64-bit) Oracle 11 G Release 2 (Enterprise\Standard) & Oracle 11G ONE edition (32-bit & 64-bit) |
Installation Method | Deployed as a Virtual Machine using OVF or OVA template | Need to install on top of Windows Operating System. |
Hosts Per vCenter | 100 Hosts with embedded vPostgres database 1000 Hosts with Oracle Database | 1000 hosts per vCenter Server |
Virtual Machines Per vCenter | 3,000 VM’s with embedded vPostgres database 10,000 VM’s with Oracle Database | 10,000 VM’s per vCenter Server |
vCenter Linked Mode | Not Supported | Supported with Windows Install |
vCenter Server Heartbeat | Not Supported | vCenter heartbeat is a windows application. It works with Windows install vCenter server |
VMware Update Manager | You can’t install VUM on VCSA. Update Manager can be installed on separate windows machine to use with VCSA | Supported with Windows Install |
AutoDeploy | Autodeploy is bundled with VCSA | Should be installed as an additional package. Installation files are located in vCenter Installation DVD |
Syslog Collector | Syslog collector is installed by default | Should be installed as an additional package. Installation files are located in vCenter Installation DVD |
ESXi Dump Collector Service | ESXi Dump Collector Service is installed by default | Should be installed as an additional package. Installation files are located in vCenter Installation DVD |
vSphere Web Client | Pre-Installed with VCSA | Should be installed as an additional package. Installation files are located in vCenter Installation DVD |
PowerCLI | Cannot be installed on vCSA | Can be installed on Windows vCenter Server machine |
IPV6 support | IPv6 is not supported. Only supports IPV4 | Both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported |