Maximums

Virtual Machine Maximums

ESX 8.0 ESX 7.0 ESX 6.7 ESX 6.5 ESX 6.0 ESX 5.5 ESX 5.1 ESX 5 ESX 4.1 ESX 4.0 ESX 3.5 ESX 3 ESX 2 ESX 1
Virtual CPUs per virtual machine 768 256 128 128 128 64 64 32 8 8 4 4 2 1
RAM per virtual machine 24 TB 6128 GB 6128 GB 6128 GB 4TB 1TB 1TB 1TB 255GB 255GB 65GB 16GB 3,6GB 2GB
Virtual SCSI adapters per virtual machine 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Virtual SCSI targets per virtual SCSI adapter 15 15 15 15 15 15
Virtual SCSI targets per virtual machine 60 60 60 60 60 60
Virtual NVMe adapters per virtual machine 4 4 4 4
Virtual NVMe targets per virtual SCSI
adapter
15 15 15 15
Virtual NVMe targets per virtual machine 60 60 60 60
Virtual SATA adapters per virtual machine 4 4 4 4 4
Virtual SATA devices per virtual SATA adapter 30 30 30 30 30 30
Virtual disk size 62TB 62TB 62TB 62TB 62TB 62TB 2TB 2TB 2TB 2TB 2TB 2TB
IDE controllers per virtual machine 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
IDE devices per virtual machine 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Floppy controllers per virtual machine 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Floppy devices per virtual machine 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Virtual NICs per virtual machine 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 4 4 4 4
USB controllers per virtual machine 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
USB devices connected to a virtual machine 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
Serial ports per virtual machine 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32
Parallel ports per virtual machine 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1
Concurrent remote console connections 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 10 10
Video memory per virtual machine 4 GB 4 GB 2 GB 2 GB 512MB 512MB
NVDIMM controllers per VM 1 1 1
NVDIMM devices per VM 64 64 64
Non-volatile memory per VM 12 TB 6128 GB 6128 GB

 

ESXi Host Maximums

ESX 8.0 ESX 7.0 ESX 6.7 ESX 6.5 ESX 6.0 ESX 5.5 ESX 5.1 ESX 5 ESX 4.1 ESX 4.0 ESX 3.5 ESX 3 ESX 2 ESX 1
Logical CPUs per host 896 768 768 576 480 320 160 160 160 64 32 32 16 8
Virtual machines per host 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 512 512 512 320 320 128 128 80 64
Virtual CPUs per host 4096 4096 4096 4096 4096 4096 2048 2048 512 512 128 128 80 64
Virtual CPUs per core 32 32 32 32 32 32 25 25 25 20 8 8 8 8
RAM per host 24TB 16TB 16TB 12TB 12TB 4TB 2TB 2TB 1TB 1TB 256GB 256GB 64GB 64GB
LUNs per server 1024 1024 1024 512 256 256 256 256 256 256
Non-volatile memory per host 12TB 12TB 1TB

 

vCenter Server Maximums

vCenter Server Maximums vC 8.0 vC 7.0 vC 6.7 vC 6.5 vC 6.0 vC 5.5 vC 5.1 vC 5 vC 4.1 vC 4.0 vC 3.5 vC 3
Hosts per vCenter Server 2500 2500 2000 2000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 300 200 200
Powered on virtual machines 40000 40000 25000 25000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 3000 2000
Registered virtual machines 45000 45000 35000 35000 15000 15000 15000 15000 15000 4500 2000
Linked vCenter Servers 15 15 15 15 10 10 10 10 10 10
Hosts in linked vCenter Servers 15000 15000 5000 4000 4000 3000 3000 3000 3000 1000
Powered on virtual machines in linked vCenter 135000 135000 50000 30000 30000 30000 30000 30000 30000 10000
Registered virtual machines in linked vCenter 150000 150000 70000 50000 50000 50000 50000 50000 50000 15000
Number of host per datacenter N/A N/A 2000 2000 500 500 500 500 400 100
MAC addresses per vCenter Server 65536 65536 65536 65536 65536 65536 65536 65536
USB devices connected at vSphere Client N/A N/A N/A N/A 20 20 20 20

 

Cluster and Resource Pool Maximums

ESXi 7.0 ESX 6.7 ESX 6.5 ESX 6.0 ESX 5.5 ESX 5.1 ESX 5 ESX 4.1 ESX 4.0 ESX 3.5
Hosts per cluster 64 64 64 64 32 32 32 32 32 32
Virtual machines per cluster 8000 8000 8000 4000 4000 4000 3000 3000 1280
Virtual machines per host 1024 1024 1024 1024 512 512 512 320 100
Resource pools per cluster 1600 1600 1600 1600 1600 1600 1600 512 512 128
Resource pools per host 1600 1600 1600 1600 1600 1600 1600 4096
Children per resource pool 1600 1600 1600 1600 1024 1024 1024 1024
Resource pool tree depth 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 12 12

 

Network Maximums

ESX 7.0 ESX 6.7 ESX 6.5 ESX 6.0 ESX 5.5 ESX 5.1 ESX 5 ESX 4.1 ESX 4.0 ESX 3.5 ESX 3
Total virtual network switch ports per host 4096 4096 4096 4096 4096 4096 4096 4096 4096 127
Maximum active ports per host 1016 1016 1016 1016 1016 1050 1016 1016 1016 1016
Virtual network switch creation ports 4088 4088 4088 4088 4088 4088 4088 4088 4088
Port groups 512 512 512 512 512 256 256 512 512 512
Distributed virtual network switch ports per vCenter 60000 60000 60000 60000 60000 60000 30000 20000 6000
Static port groups per vCenter 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 5000 5000 512
Ephemeral port groups per vCenter 1016 1016 1016 1016 1016 256 256 1016
Hosts per distributed switch 2000 2000 2000 1000 500 500 350 350 64
Distributed switches per vCenter 128 128 128 128 128 128 32 32 16

 

Storage Maximums

ESX 7,0 ESX 6.7 ESX 6.5 ESX 6.0 ESX 5.5 ESX 5.1 ESX 5 ESX 4.1 ESX 4.0 ESX 3.5 ESX 3
Software iSCSI NICs per server 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
Number of total paths on a server 4096 4096 2048 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024
Number of paths to a iSCSI LUN 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
Software iSCSI targets 256 256 256 256 256 256 256 256 256
NFS mounts per host 256 256 256 256 256 256 256 64 64
FC LUNs per host 1024 1024 512 256 256 256 256 256 256 256 256
FC LUN ID 16383 16383 16383 1023 255 255 255 255 255 255 255
FC Number of paths to a LUN 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32
Number of HBAs of any type 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
HBA ports 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
Targets per HBA 256 256 256 256 256 256 256 256 256 15
Software FCoE adapters 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Volumes per host 1024 1024 512 256 256 256 256 256 256 256
Hosts per volume 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 32
Powered on virtual machines per VMFS volume 2048 2048 2048 2048 2048 2048 2048 256
Concurrent vMotion operations per datastore 128 128 128 128 128 128 128
Concurrent Storage vMotion operations per datastore 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
Concurrent Storage vMotion operations per host 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Concurrent non vMotion provisioning operations per host 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
VMFS Volume size 64TB 64TB 64TB 64TB 64TB 64TB 64TB 64TB 64TB 64TB
Virtual disks per datastore cluster 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000
Datastores per datastore cluster 64 64 64 64 64
Datastore clusters per vCenter 256 256 256 256 256

 

Fault Tolerance Maximums

ESX 7.0 ESX 6.7 ESX 6.5 ESX 6.0 ESX 5.5 ESX 5.1 ESX 5.0
Virtual disks 16 16 16 16 16 16
Virtual CPUs per virtual machine 8 8 4 4 1 1 1
RAM per FT VM 128GB 128GB 64GB 64GB 64GB 64GB 64GB
Virtual machines per host 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Disk size 2 TB 2 TB 2 TB 2 TB

 

Virtual SAN Maximums

ESX 7.0 ESX 6.7 ESX 6.5 ESX 6.0 ESX 5.5
Virtual SAN disk groups per host 5 5 5 5 5
Capacity tier devices per disk group 7 7 7 7 7
Cache tier devices per disk group 1 1 1 1 1
Spinning disks in all diskgroups per host 35 35 35 35 35
Components per Virtual SAN host 9000 9000 9000 9000 3000
Number of Virtual SAN nodes in a cluster 64 64 64 64 32
Number of Virtual SAN nodes in a cluster (All-Flash) 64 32 32
Number of datastores per cluster 1 1 1 1 1
Virtual machines per host 200 200 200 200 100
Virtual machines per cluster 6400 6000 6000 6400 3200
Virtual machine virtual disk size 62TB 62TB 62TB 62TB 2032GB
Disk stripes per object 12 12 12 12 12
Percentage of flash read cache reservation 100 100 100 100 100
Percentage of object space reservation 100 100 100 100 100
Virtual SAN networks/physical network fabrics 2 2 2 2 2

 

All informations are based on VMware documentation:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *