What is difference between ESXi and vSphere?

[AshishBarot]

Hi All,

Can anyone guide me to findout the difference between Esxi and vSphere?

Any link ? Any document?

Best Regards,

Ashish Barot.

[arturka]

Hi

vSphere is a product name which includes vCenter server, ESXi hypervisor and many other

ESXi is a hypervisor type included in vSphere package

Cheers
Artur

Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[AshishBarot]

Ok.

Suppose somone has ESXi already installed on his server, then can he insall vsphere on it?

or first he need to remove esxi and then can install vsphere.

Regards,

Ashish Barot.

[arturka]

Let me explain you differently

VMware vSphere - is like Microsoft Windows, where microsoft is a company name, Windows is a product line name (in Windows family you have OS such as , Windows 7, Windows 2008 etc) this same is in vSphere.

VMware vSphere  - VMware -company name, vSphere is a product line name and ESXi 5 is an hypervisior version

Cheers
Artur

Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[Virtualinfra]

difference between Esxi and vSphere?

ESXi is a product which provides virtualization.

Vsphere is the name givne to the bundle of all features in the new version (ESXi, vcenter and its features so on).

So ESXi is one of the product in vsphere.

ESXi is the os, vsphere is the name and vmware is the company.

windows 2k3, 2k8, 2k8R2 is the os, windows is the name given to all server and desktop products and microsoft is the company.

Refer the below vmware datasheet for what is vmware vsphere?

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Standard-DataSheet-DS-EN.pdf

Award point by clicking the below tab for the helpful and correct answers

[Virtualinfra]

refer this discussion too..

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1369122

[v-4-virtual]

Dear Ashish,

I use to get the same question when I started learning VMware. Let me make an attempt to convey my thoughts and let me know if they have helped you.

What is vSphere ?

vSphere is suite of products packaged shipped by VMware virtualization company, which includes products. Like VMware ESXi hypervisor, VMware vCenter Server, etc.

VMware ESXi ?

ESXi or hypervisor is bare metal OS which virtualizes x86 server hardware. You use ESXi ( OS ) installation  media to install OS on top of hardware just like you install any other OS like Windows or Linux

Once you have VMware ESXi installed on a x86 server hardware I is ready to virtualized. What does it mean ? - It means you can now use same server to create , configure, run more than one virtual machines and install required Operating systems within Virtual Machines they are referred as Guest Operating systems which could be Windows or Linux etc

Further, vCenter server is another VMware Product shipped in vSphere bundle that helps you manage one or more ESXi servers from a centralized location.

I am hoping this answers your both queries.

Please let me know if that helps you and if you need any further clarification I will be glad to discuss with you further.

Virtually,

vAseem

[mrksiddiqui]

Vshpere is bunch of VMware product combined like ESXi and Vcenter. Esxi is the hypervisor that gets installed on barematel (VM OS in other words).

[admin]

Capability                                    ESX                                         ESXi 5.x 

Service Console                       Present                                     Removed 

Admin/config CLIs                 COS + vCLI                               PowerCLI + vCLI (enhanced) 

Advanced Troubleshooting       COS                                         ESXi Shell 

Scripted Installation                Supported                               Supported 

Boot from SAN                        Supported                                Supported 

SNMP                                     Supported                                 Supported 

Active Directory                      Integrated                                  Integrated 

HW Monitoring              Third-party agents in COS                     CIM providers 

Serial Port Connectivity       Supported                                    Supported 

Jumbo Frames                      Supported                                    Supported 

(Rapid deployment and

central management

of hosts via Auto Deploy)       Not Supported                               Supported 

(Custom image creation

and management)                 Not Supported                               Supported 

Secure syslog                      Not Supported                                   Supported 

Management interface

firewall                                Supported                                         Supported -

See more at: http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi-and-esx/compare#sthash.SPGDsw0y.dpuf

[weinstein5]

This is a little misleading ESX was a 'flavor' the hypervisor that was available up through version 4 - with version 5 the ESX version of the hypervisor is no longer available.

As others have indicated vSphere is a product line - containing ESXi, vCenter, etc

[Anil_K]

Hi vAseem,

Thanks you so much for response, but still I have some doubt,

I have two line item

Item 1: USB memory Key for VMware ESXi 5.0

Item 2: VMware vSphere 5 standard for 1 processor Lic

My doubt is if I have line item 1 do I need to buy line item 2 as well, what is difference between line item 1 and 2 , is ESXi 5.0 Freely downloadable ...?

please help me ....thanking you in anticipation...

[abu007]

perfectly explained.

[vembutech1]

ESX\ESXi is the Host server where Hypervisor layer available while vSphere is an advanced management console to manage virtual machines like create\remove VMs and Power ON\Off VMs.

[dku27]

What's wrong with just using the VMware vSphere "Client" to manage/create the VM's?

[antonior14]

Hi, excuse me for question...I have recently started to use vmware with a company that use Esxi 5.1.0

Is it a free version??

How can I determine it?

Thanks a lot :smileyblush: