vSphere Essentials is a package that is for the SMB. At present there is a promotional offer
(Until June 15, 2010) reducing the price from $995 to $495.

In this package you receive vCenter and 3 ESX host licenses (up to 6 CPU Licenses)

Of course this a basic package - with only the basic features - no HA, Vmotion etc.

This is ideal for a small business starting out.

I tried today to see if the limit is actually 6 CPU's or 3 hosts.

Here I have an Essentials License with 3 ESX hosts - but each of them only have 1 Physical CPU

Trying to add the 4th host I got this

What I did find strange though was that it did take up an extra CPU from my license

The new host was disconnected but still taking up a CPU license

After removing the Host - it went back to the correct state

What did I learn from this experience?

• The limit is 3 ESX hosts - not the amount of CPU's
• This is still an amazing package for a lab setup!!