New upgrade webpage for ESXi 4 pushes us to the right direction?
Or at least to the direction VMware wants us to go…. 
There has been a new page on VMware Website for migration from ESX 4 to ESXi 4. This clearly indicates the direction we all should go. To deploy ESXi 4 instead of ESX 4. Why and how it’s been discussed many times by many bloggers.
My question too about ESXi 4. Should I deploy ESXi 4 now even if I know that some functionalities like server monitoring solutions from some vendors are not supported? It’s the case of Fujistu’s Serverview Software agent which is only supported on ESX 4 as a standard RPM installation package inside of the Red Hat console.
Sure there is much more to win than to loose. By deploying and using ESXi 4 now you are avoiding some downtime in case you’re using HA and not vMotion in your production environment. (the case of most small businesses). Half of the patches are for the RED Hat console OS…… So avoiding to use the COS you win some downtime….
The setup process of an ESXi 4 is much faster than ESX 4. You’ll be able to install ESXi 4 within minutes. Sure, there is no PXE booting right now for ESXi 4 (but there is a nice Workaround on Didier’s blog in English…) but the next release the 4.1 should have one..
The majority of the code is identical between ESXi et ESX, but since VMware admins are very attached to the Red Hat console, the moove to ESXi 4 is a big change for them. But for new users it’s much easier to jump directly to the management ESXi 4.
In the future, ESXi’s superior architecture will be the exclusive focus of VMware’s development efforts
With that said. There is more to win than to loose. ESXi supports SNMP in it’s licensed version so you can have a monitoring system setup with an Opensource Nagios for example.
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