VMware Cloud Community
smadhura
Contributor
Contributor

Free ESXi memory limitation

Hi folks,

Are there any plans to increase the 32GB memory limit on free ESXi hypervisor to 64GB?

21 Replies
abhilashhb
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hey smadhura,

That hard limit on memory was only till 5.1. Now you can go upto 4TB RAM on free ESXi from version 5.5

These are the new maximums:

  • vSphere 5.5 supports 320 Physical CPUs per ESXi host
  • ESXi host supports 4 TB of Memory in vSphere 5.5
  • 16 NUMA Nodes per host in vSphere 5.5
  • 4096 Maximum vCPUs per host
  • Support for 40 GBps Physical Network adapters
  • 62 TB VMDK virtual disk support
  • Supports 16 GB FibreChannel end-to-end Support
  • Increased VMFS Heap, 64TB open VMDK per host max
  • Virtual Machine Hardware Version 10 in vSphere 5.5
Abhilash B
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhilashhb/

admin
Immortal
Immortal

Check out this link to more clarification..it will help you..

http://www.vladan.fr/esxi-5-1-free/

Yours, Phillips

Reply
0 Kudos
john_lauro
Contributor
Contributor

Don't see how that help?  It appears to only cover 5.1, and not 5.5...

Reply
0 Kudos
izum
Contributor
Contributor

Hello, can you, please, tell me, what amount of VRAM can be allocated to one virtual machine by free Hypervisor? I've looked hard through vmware site, but found only "no more limitations to host RAM from 5.1". I'm interested exactly in vram per virtual pc. Thanks in advance!

Reply
0 Kudos
john_lauro
Contributor
Contributor

The limit in 5.5 for a VM is 1TB (host has a 4TB limit).  http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere5/r55/vsphere-55-configuration-maximums.pdf

Reply
0 Kudos
izum
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks a lot, but can you  please tell me, what limits for VMs in free version of vSphere (not in evaluation version of vSphere, but in vSphere Hypervisor, if i realized correctly)? Or those limits works for all versions of vSphere? By the way, is there any licence agreement or vSphere Hypervisor, where listed all usage limitations? On vmware site i found only vSphere specs. Or i looked badly? Thanks in advance again!

Reply
0 Kudos
john_lauro
Contributor
Contributor

When you get the free license, you have to register how many physical machines it will run on, but not aware of any limit.  I think there might be a two physical CPU limit per physical box but don't actually see that specified, and I have not installed 5.5 yet...  (so someone will likely correct me if I am mistaken).

I did find this on a blog: TinkerTry IT @ home | Best parts of VMware’s ESXi 5.5 free hypervisor rely on vCenter, whi...

... all the good stuff is only gotten from the vSphere Web Client. This is a rude awaking for many who may not have tried ESXi before. Examples of this good stuff include VMs with greater than 2TB drives, mapping USB 3.0 ports to VMs, better GPU handling, and vSphere Flash Read Cache. These compelling features are locked to hardware version 10 VMs, which cannot be managed from the vSphere Client, and cannot be run on ESXi 5.1.

So the biggest limitations appear to be you can't tie into vcenter / web client and are thus restricted to using virtual hardware version 9 (and below) VMs and their limitations.  That said, it does sound like you can manage many settings of virtual hardware 10 VMs with Vmware Workstation 10.

So you either want to make your you keep with vm hardware 9 machines, or at least have a version of Vmware Workstation 10 to connection to ESXi 5.5 hosts.

Reply
0 Kudos
AlexSniz
Contributor
Contributor

Have a look here.

http://www.vmware.com/ap/products/vsphere-hypervisor/gettingstarted.html

Specifications

  • Unlimited number of cores per physical CPU
  • Unlimited number of physical CPUs per host
  • Maximum vCPUs per virtual machine: eight
  • Limitation of 32GB RAM limit per server/host has been removed from the free Hypervisor.
  • Operating system support: Microsoft OS (18 versions), Linux (54 versions), Mac OS X 10, Solaris, FreeBSD, etc. (See a complete list of supported versions.)

- See more at: http://www.vmware.com/ap/products/vsphere-hypervisor/gettingstarted.html#sthash.y8zKxAX8.dpuf
Nikhil_Patwa
Expert
Expert

Hi Smadhura,

Currently downloading the ESXi 5.5 and going to install very soon, my server is having 64GB RAM and will prove if the 32GB RAM limitation for free ESXi is removed or not. As per VMware posts there is no RAM limitation with ESXi 5.5 free

Regards,

Nikhil

Reply
0 Kudos
berrosch76
Contributor
Contributor

There is not limit for maximum memory in ESXi 5.5. free (vsphere hypervisor free) anymonre - so, it is 'unlimited' now (limited by hard limits of version)

Reply
0 Kudos
King_Robert
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I hope this post is informative for you

vSphere 5.5 - ESXi 5.5 Free version with no more 32 GB RAM hard limit

With this new ESXi 5.5 free version, We can play around with the Home lab by setup a lab by running more powerful virtual machines and install and play around with our nested virtual machines.

With the Snapshot from the ESXi 5 host with free license with the hard limit of 32 GB  of Memory and 8-way Virtual SMP. But we are unlocked with physical RAM limit in ESXi 5.5 free edition. Let's grow our lab with more powerful virtual machines running on our vSphere Home lab along with new configuration maximums

  • vSphere 5.5 supports 320 Physical CPUs per ESXi host
  • ESXi host supports 4 TB of Memory in vSphere 5.5
  • 16 NUMA Nodes per host in vSphere 5.5
  • 4096 Maximum vCPUs per host
  • Support for 40 GBps Physical Network adapters
  • 62 TB VMDK virtual disk support
  • Supports 16 GB FibreChannel end-to-end Support
  • Increased VMFS Heap, 64TB open VMDK per host max
  • Virtual Machine Hardware Version 10 in vSphere 5.5
Meocla
Contributor
Contributor

  • vSphere 5.5 supports 320 Physical CPUs per ESXi host

This is good. But how to understand this:

Essentials Kit:  License entitlement 3 servers with up to 2 processors each.

So if I have ESXi host with 3 physical processors, how is it possible to upgrade to Essentials Kit if limitation is 2 processors?

Reply
0 Kudos
weinstein5
Immortal
Immortal

That is because the Essentials kit is a specialized licensing aimed at customer looking to make a small investment in software to set up a virtual environment and the ESXi host are limited to two physical cpus


If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful
Reply
0 Kudos
Meocla
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you, weinstein5. VMWare classifications and descriptions are terrible for newbies imho.

Reply
0 Kudos
Atul_gen
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Is there any documents for this ? please point me release note or KB article.This hard limit memory has been removed from 5.5 .

If you find this or any other answer useful please mark the answer as correct or helpful.
Reply
0 Kudos
vThinkBeyondVM
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi Friend,

From below VMware page: Limitation of 32GB RAM limit per server/host has been removed from the free Hypervisor. - See more at:

Free Virtualization with VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) | United States

To get more insight on maximums across VM/storage/networks etc.:http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere5/r55/vsphere-55-configuration-maximums.pdf


----------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks & Regards
Vikas, VCP70, MCTS on AD, SCJP6.0, VCF, vSphere with Tanzu specialist.
https://vThinkBeyondVM.com/about
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: Any views or opinions expressed here are strictly my own. I am solely responsible for all content published here. Content published here is not read, reviewed or approved in advance by VMware and does not necessarily represent or reflect the views or opinions of VMware.

Reply
0 Kudos
King_Robert
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

32 GB only Smiley Happy max

Reply
0 Kudos
antonior14
Contributor
Contributor

Hi! I'm considering to choice vmware for virtualization starting from Hypervisor version, so after "evaluating" this version can I buy a Standard or other licensed version without reinstalling so only changing license type and upgrading to latest version?

I apologize for doubts, Thanks a lot!

Reply
0 Kudos