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datadotcom
Contributor
Contributor

6 ESXi free version has some limitation to hardware

Good morning,

ESXi 6 free version has some limitation to hardware support than Essential? It supports two CPUs and 32 GB of RAM?

Thx

5 Replies
schepp
Leadership
Leadership

Hi,

the limitations for the free hypervisor are mostly gone.

CPUs and RAM is now unlimited.

Only limit is that you can create VMs with a maximum of 8 vCPUs per VM.

See here under specifications: Free Virtualization with VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) | United States

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IT_Architect
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

>Only limit is that you can create VMs with a maximum of 8 vCPUs per VM.  See here under specifications: Free Virtualization with VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) | United States<

From what I understand, a key limitation not mentioned is there is no free client to manage the new hardware version VMs, which is what makes the enhancements available.  I'm on ESXi 5.1 and VM hardware level 7 because there was no client at the time for 5.5, and paying to upgrade then REDUCED the functionality of the free version.  To that end I have a few questions:

1.  I'm on 5.1.  If I upgrade to 6.0, will I gain the ability to use NFS version 4.1 with my hardware version 7 VMs?

2.  What does it cost to get a client that can manage the new features?  In the past, paying to upgrade added limitations to the free version.  That has always been my problem with ESXi.  It either forces me to pay nothing or a lot.  The stuff in the middle just didn't make sense, so it became nothing.  I have no problem spending money, as long as it is cost effective.  I don't care about silly little things like their backup software.  I'm doing that with free scripts now.  I need a client that can manage the new VMs, either a client that uses legacy web app technology, or a modern Windows app.

3.  I currently have VMware Workstation 9.  It was supposed to be able to be able to copy VMs to ESXi, and have them run, but that was never real.  There was always something, nics, etc. that made it not real.  Managing vSphere VMs from Workstation was also terribly slow compared to the client.  Is there any real strategy that would make sense in conjunction with VMware Workstation that would help make an upgrade make sense?

If there is no strategy that makes sense, it doesn't make sense for me to upgrade Workstation or vSphere. 

Thanks!

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sysadmit
Contributor
Contributor

The limitations of the free version of ESXi 6 are the same as version 5.5.

Here's a FAQ about the limits of the free version: http://www.sysadmit.com/2016/03/vmware-esxi-gratuito-limitaciones.html



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fabianalarcon
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Para contar con una respuesta oficial, después de buscar exhaustivamente encontré lo siguiente:

VMware vSphere Hypervisor

VMware vSphere Hypervisor is a free product that provides a simple and easy way to get started with virtualization at no cost. vSphere Hypervisor provides only basic virtualization capabilities, allowing customers to virtualize servers and run applications in virtual machines in a matter of minutes. vSphere Hypervisor cannot connect to vCenter Server and therefore cannot be centrally managed. Users can remotely manage individual vSphere Hypervisor hosts using the vSphere Client. There are no restrictions on the number of cores per physical CPU, on the number of physical CPUs per host and on the amount of RAM per server/ host. The maximum vCPUs per virtual machine is eight.

Documento oficial y actualizado a la fecha.

VMWARE vSPHERE AND vSPHERE WITH OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT Licensing, Pricing and Packaging

http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsphere/vmware-vsphere-vso...

En este vídeo se especifican algunas de las limitaciones de hardware:

Diríjase al enlace vSphere Hypervisor: descripción general de las licencias

URL

VMware vSphere Hypervisor gratuito, virtualización gratuita (ESXi)

Espero haber podido ayudar.

Saludos,