There has been talks in VMware Communities and in some blog comments that vCenter Update Manager 4.1 has dropped support for SQL Server 2008 Standard so you would need SQL Server Enterprise edition instead. If you take a look at VMware vCenter Update Manager page on vSphere Compatibility Matrix released on 13th of July, SQL Server 2008 Standard is indeed marked as not compatible, but 2005 SP2 still is.
I firmly believe that this is error in documentation, so SQL Server 2008 Standard support is not actually dropped on VUM 4.1, it just makes no sense at all to me that SQL Server Express 2005 is marked as supported but Standard is not, Express is so much more limited in its capabilities than Standard. Also SQL Server 2008 Standard is supported with previous releases so it has already been certified, why remove support now?
I am still waiting confirmation from VMware on this, but until there is public clarification on this issue check your upgrade plans with VMware support to be sure!
Update: I received an answer from VMware today, this is indeed an error in Compatibility Matrix, SQL Server 2008 Standard IS supported with Update Manager 4.1 and error in Compatibility Matrix will be corrected.
One important thing you should note is that as vCenter Server 4.1 is now full-fledged 64-bit application it requires 64-bit DSN, but Update Manager 4.1 is still 32-bit application so it requires 32-bit DSN! See discussion of this at Yellow Bricks
I have already asked our VUM and vCenter engineering team what the message is around this, might indeed be a DOC bug.
thanks for stealing my article by the way
my most sincere apologies Duncan!
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