Differences between Vsphere and ESXi hipervisor

[fasttrack]

Hi guys,

I need to understand the difference between Vsphere and ESXI hipervisor.

Is it correct to say that Vsphere is ESX?

Some help will be very useful.

Many thanks

[snellutla]

vSphere is a cloud operating system.previously, it was known as virtual infrastructure. It includes all vmwae software and hardware components.So, I can say it's a Big picture.

ESX/ESXI both are hypervisors or virtualization layers between hardware and VM's. To conclude, vSphere comprises of VMs,ESX,ESXi,vSwitches and other VMware products.

hth.

[mcowger · Accepted solution]

vSphere is the suite of products, including ESX (the hypervisor), vCenter (for management), etc.

As a comparison, you've asked "Is it correct to say that a shoe is shoelaces"?  No, not really.  One is a part of the whole.

[RaymondG]

vSphere contains, ESX and ESXi.   I believe the question is, what is the difference between ESX and ESXi.

ESX contains vmwares modified linux os with you can log into, install programs, run commands, etc..   ESXi does not contain this component.  it is just the hypervisor alone.....nothing to log into...which make the install size very small....less than 1GB even!

I believe after 4.1, ESXi will be the only version available.

[Troy_Clavell]

see here too

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1023990