| Released |
05/2009 |
07/2010 |
08/2011 |
09/2012 |
09/2013 |
03/2015 |
11/2016 |
04/2018 |
04/2020 |
| Hypervisor |
ESX & ESXi |
ESX & ESXi |
ESXi |
ESXi |
ESXi |
ESXi |
ESXi |
ESXi |
ESXi |
| CPUs per host |
64 |
160 |
160 |
160 |
320 |
480 |
576 |
768 |
768 |
| RAM per host |
1 TB |
1 TB |
2 TB |
2 TB |
4 TB |
12 TB |
12 TB |
16 TB |
16 TB |
| vCPU per VM |
8 |
8 |
32 |
64 |
64 |
128 |
128 |
128 |
128 |
| vMEM per VM |
255 GB |
255 GB |
1 TB |
1 TB |
1 TB |
4 TB |
6 TB |
6 TB |
6 TB |
| VMDK Size |
2TB |
2TB |
2TB |
2TB |
62 TB |
62 TB |
62 TB |
62 TB |
62 TB |
| Cluster Size |
32 |
32 |
32 |
32 |
32 |
64 |
64 |
64 |
64 |
| FT Limit |
1 vCPU64 GB |
1 vCPU64 GB |
1 vCPU64 GB |
1 vCPU64 GB |
1 vCPU64 GB |
4 vCPU64 GB |
4 vCPU64 GB |
8 vCPU128 GB |
8 vCPU128 GB |
| VM Hardware Version |
7 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
13 |
14+15 |
17 |
| VMFS Version |
3.33 |
3.46 |
5.54 |
5.58 |
5.60 |
5.61 |
5.81 (VMFS5)6.81 (VMFS6) |
5.81 (VMFS5)6.82 (VMFS6) |
5.81 (VMFS5)6.82 (VMFS6) |
| New Features |
- Distributed Switch- Update Manager- Fault tolerance- Host Profiles- Storage vMotion- Linked Mode- Enhanced vMotion - Compatibility- Distributed Power Management- Hot Add VM CPU/Memory- VMDirectPath- VMXNET3 |
- Boot from SAN- Scripted Installation- Storage I/O Control- DRS Host Affinity- Memory Compression- Array Integration- Network I/O Control |
- Auto Deploy- Storage DRS- vSphere Storage Appliance- Profile driven storage- vSphere Web Client- vCenter Server Appliance- ESXi Firewall |
- Single Sign-On- Enhanced vMotion- Sparse Virtual Disks- Single-root I/O Virtualization- vSphere Replication- vSphere Data Protection- vShield Endpoint |
- vSphere Flash Read Cache- Virtual SAN- Reliable Memory Technology- vSphere Big Data Extensions- vCenter Single Sign-On 2.0- vSphere App HA- 40GBps NIC Support |
- Virtual Volumes- vMotion across vSwitches- Cross vCenter vMotion- Native Linked Mode- Platform Services Controller- Certificate Authority (VMCA)- Content Library |
- vCenter Migration- vCenter Server High Availability- vCenter Backup and Restore- REST API- Virtual Machine Encryption- Encrypted vMotion- Audit Logging- Proactive HA- HA Orchestrated Restart- Automated UNMAP- vSphere Integrated Containers |
- Single Reboot Upgrade- Instant Clone- ESXi Quick Boot- Persistent Memory Devices- vCenter Appliance Backup- 4k Native Storage- TPM 2.0- vTPM 2.0 |
- Tanzu- Trust Authority- Lifecycle Manager- Improved DRS |
| Management |
C# Client |
C# Client |
C# Client |
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| Web Client |
C# Client |
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| Web Client |
C# Client |
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| Web Client |
C# Client |
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| Web Client |
Web Client |
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| HTML5 Client |
HTML5 Client |
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| Web Client |
HTML5 Client |
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| Authentication Management |
- |
- |
- |
Single Sign-On |
Single Sign-On 5.5 |
Platform Services Controller |
Platform Services Controller |
Platform Services Controller |
Platform Services Controller |
| Backup Strategy |
VMware Data Recovery (VDR) |
vSphere Data Protection (VDP) |
N/A |
N/A |
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| vMotion Support |
- Boundary: Datacenter- Shared Storage required- max. 5ms RTT |
- Boundary: Datacenter- Shared Storage required- max. 10ms RTT |
- Boundary: Datacenter- max. 10ms RTT |
- Boundary: Datacenter- max. 10ms RTT |
- vMotion across vCenters- vMotion across vSwitches- max. 100ms RTT |
- max. 150ms RTT- Per-VM EVC- vGPU Migration |
- Logic Optimizations- Reduced Stun Time- Reduced Performance Impact |
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| Virtual SAN |
- |
- |
- |
- |
VSAN 5.5 |
VSAN 6.0VSAN 6.2 |
VSAN 6.5VSAN 6.6 |
vSAN 6.7 |
vSAN 7.0 |
| HA Agent |
AAMAutomatic Availability Manager |
FDMFault Domain Manager |
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| VAAI Primitives |
- |
- Atomic Test & Set- Cloning Blocks- Zeroing File Blocks |
- Atomic Test & Set- Cloning Blocks- Zeroing File Blocks- UNMAP- Quota Exceeded Behavior- TP LUN Reporting- NFS Full File Clone- NFS Space Reservation- NFS Extended Stat- NFS Space Reclaim- NFS Fast File Clone |
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| vCenter Type |
Windows |
Windows |
WindowsLinux |
WindowsLinux |
WindowsLinux |
WindowsLinux |
WindowsLinux |
Linux Windows |
Linux |
| vCSA Scale (vPostgres) |
- |
- |
5 Hosts50 VMs |
5 Hosts50 VMs |
100 Hosts3000 VMs |
1000 Hosts10000 VMs |
2000 Hosts25000 VMs |
2000 Hosts35000 VMs |
2500 Hosts40000 VMs |