Can Prime Infrastructure 1.x run on Free VMware vSphere Hypervisor?

[tpersio]

I am preparing to migrate from WCS to Prime Infrastructure 1.2 or 1.3.  Can Prime Infrastructure run on the free version of VMware (called vSphere Hypervisor) or does Cisco Prime have to run on the full licensed version of VMware vSphere 4.x or 5.x? 

The Cisco installation documentation for Prime 1.3 only refers to ESXi 4.1 or 5.0, which I'm assuming means the licensed version.

Can anyone share if they've been running on the free version?  Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Tony Persio

[Rob Johnson]

The system requirements in the Quick Start guide indicate-----

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/docs/wireless/prime_infrastructure/1.3/quickstart/guide/cpi_qsg_1_3.html#wp46865

Server Requirements (for VMware ESXi environment)

VMware ESXi Server software is required on the server. Version 5.0 is required for the Large and Extra Large OVAs. Version 4.1 will work with Small and Medium OVAs, but 5.0 is preferred. Prime Infrastructure 1.3 has not been tested with VMware ESXi Server versions later than 5.0.

Prime Infrastructure can be installed as a pre-sized virtual appliance (OVA) on your own server. The minimum server requirements for each of the Prime Infrastructure OVA options are as follows (Table 4 lists scale numbers for devices managed by Prime Infrastructure):

-----my guess would be no.  This info is usually right on....

[tpersio]

Rob,

Thank you for your feedback.  I agree that it may be the case that the licensed version is required.  I worked with my company's Cisco rep to install a demo copy of the Medium OVA (virtual appliance) on a test PC running the free version of VMware vShpere Hypervisor, and it ran fine in my test environment. 

I'm just hoping someone out there may have some experience running Prime Infrastructure on the free version of VMware in production.  My technology department hasn't started buying into VMware yet and I'm just trying to save some cost if the free version works.  According to a VMware guru I've spoken with the core executable in the free version (vSphere Hypervisor) is identical to the licensed version (vSphere 5.x)....  It just doesn't many of the extra features of the licensed version.

It's all good.... If I hit roadblocks with the free version, I'll just have to pony up for the licensed copy! 

If anyone has experience trying, please let me know... 

Thanks!

Tony