ESXi vs Full ESX

[#1]

The future is only ESXi

With the new release of vSphere 4.1 there are some changes and news:

• the terminology as changed and now ESXi is ESXi Hypervisor Architecture

• the "old" ESX (or full ESX or legacy ESX or ESX with the service console) is available in the last release, from next version ONLY ESXi will be available.

VMware suggest to migrate to ESXi, the preferred hypervisor architecture from VMware. ESXi is recommended for all deployments of the new vSphere 4.1 release. For planning purposes, it is important to know that vSphere 4.1 is the last vSphere release to support both ESX and ESXi hypervisor architectures; all future releases of vSphere will only support the ESXi architecture.

On how to migrate see: http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/esxi-and-esx/

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ESX vs ESXi

ESX and ESXi official comparison:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006543 - VMware ESX and ESXi 3.5 Comparison

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1015000 - VMware ESX and ESXi 4.0 Comparison

Probably the big difference is that ESXi has a POSIX Management Appliance that runs within the vmkernel and ESX has a GNU/Linux Management Appliance that runs within a VM.

ESX vs. ESXi which is better?

http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/vmmeup/2009/04/07/esx-vs-esxi-which-is-better

http://www.vknowledge.nl/2009/01/15/to-esxi-or-not-to-esxi-thats-the-question/

ESXi vs. ESX: A comparison of features

http://blogs.vmware.com/esxi/2009/06/esxi-vs-esx-a-comparison-of-features.html

http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vmware-esx-articles/general/vmware-esxi-server...

Note that HCL can be differed from ESX and ESXi:

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ESXi limitations

• No official interactive console (there is only a "unsupported" hidden console: http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vmware-esx-articles/general/how-to-access-the-... - With 4.1 the Tech mode support is now fully supported

• ESXi 4.0 has no official supported SSH access (there is only a "unsupported" access: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/08/10/howto-esxi-and-ssh/) - Changed in 4.1, where SSH is a service

• No /etc/ssh/sshd_config file for SSH non-root access (but is still possible: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/08/14/esxi-ssh-and-non-root-users/)

• No support for some 3th part backup programs (see also ) - Resolved with "last" version of those programs

• No support for some 3th part programs

• ESXi 4.0 hasn't Active Directory authentication for "local" user - Implemented in 4.1

• No full crontab for schedule jobs and scripts locally (but there is a root crontab in /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root)

• No hot-add feature for virtual disk in ESXi 4.0, but only on ESXi 3.5 (or also on ESXi Advanced with hot-add license) - resolved with first updates

• No SNMP "get" polling"

• No virtual Serial or Parallel port

• No USB disk in the "console"

• No support for mount ext2/ext3/ntfs/cifs filesystem in the console

• No fully functional esxtop

• No fully functional esxcfg-mpath

• No vscsiStats tool

• ESXi 4.0 has only experimental support for boot from SAN - Resolved with 4.1

• ESXi 4.0 has limited PXE install or scriptable installation (but seems that there is a solution: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_4_pxe_boot_esxi.pdf and http://www.mikedipetrillo.com/mikedvirtualization/2008/11/howto-pxe-boot-esxi.html) - Resolved with ESXi 4.1

• Normally with a standalone ESXi host you'll get 1 hour of performance data, the graph should be set to reset every 20 seconds (you can also extend the performance data to 36 hours will a simple hack - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/extending_performance_data.php)

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Free ESXi (or VMware vSphere Hypervisor 4.1) limitations

• ESXi 4.x free can not be connected to a vCenter Center (it required a VC agent license)

• VCB does not work (it require a VCB license)

• Lot of 3th part backup programs does not work with free ESXi (see also: )

• RCLI and VMware Infrastructure toolkit are limited to read-only access for ESXi free

• Free ESXi does not support SNMP

• Free ESXi does not support Active Directory integration at this time

• Free ESXi does not support Jumbo Frame - http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1012454

• Free ESXi EULA has some interesting restrictions including enforced read only mode for v4 and later versions of v3.5.

See also: What's the difference between free ESXi and licensed ESXi?

http://vmetc.com/2008/08/10/whats-the-difference-between-free-esxi-and-licensed-esxi/

VMware ESX/ESXi EULA - http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/esx_esxi_eula.html

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ESXi advantages

• Fast to install / reinstall

• Can be installed on a SD flash card or USB key (there is also an embedded version that is pre-installed) -

• Easy to configure (there is a simple configuration menu)

• Small footprint = fast and easy to patch + (maybe) more secure

• Extremely thin = fast installation + faster boot

• Does not use a vmdk for console filesystems (as ESX 4.0 does)

• There is a tool for dump ESXi configuration

• Near to be "plug and play" (for example with the embedded version and the Host Profile feature)

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Sources

[HughBorg707]

Thanks Andre!

[AndreTheGiant]

You're welcome.

Andre

[Borja_Mari]

Hi Andre,

you did another great doc.

I just would add (IMHO) a relevant information related to the vmware support of the esxi usb installations:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1010574&sl...

Regards/Saludos,
Pablo

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[AndreTheGiant]

Thanks.

I've added the note directly on related document:

Andre