Topic

Configuration Maximums
VMware vSphere 4.0
Whenyouselectandconfigureyourvirtualandphysicalequipment,youmuststayatorbelowthemaximums supportedbyvSphere4.0.Thelimitspresentedinthefollowingtablesrepresenttested,recommendedlimits, andtheyarefullysupportedbyVMware.

VirtualMachineMaximumsonpage 1 ESXHostMaximumsonpage 2 vCenterServerMaximumsonpage 6 vCenterServerExtensionsonpage 7

Thelimitspresentedinthisdocumentcanbeaffectedbyotherfactors,suchashardwaredependencies.For moreinformationaboutsupportedhardware,seetheappropriateESXhardwarecompatibilityguide.Please consultindividualsolutionlimitstoensurethatyoudonotexceedsupportedconfigurationsforyour environment. TheConfigurationMaximumsforvSphere4.0coversESX,ESXi,andvCenterServer.

Virtual Machine Maximums

Table 1containsconfigurationmaximumsrelatedtovirtualmachines. Table 1. Virtual Machine Maximums
Item Compute VirtualCPUspervirtualmachine(VirtualSMP) Memory RAMpervirtualmachine Virtualmachineswapfilesize Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices VirtualSCSIadapterspervirtualmachine VirtualSCSItargetspervirtualSCSIadapter VirtualSCSItargetspervirtualmachine Disksize IDEcontrollerspervirtualmachine IDEdevicespervirtualmachine Floppycontrollerspervirtualmachine Floppydevicespervirtualmachine 42 153 60 2TBminus512B4 15 46 1 27 255GB 255GB1 8 Maximum

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Configuration Maximums

Table 1. Virtual Machine Maximums (Continued)

Item Networking Virtual Devices VirtualNICspervirtualmachine Virtual Peripheral Ports Parallelportspervirtualmachine Serialportspervirtualmachine VMDirectPath VMDirectPathPCI/PCIedevicespervirtualmachine VMDirectPathSCSItargetspervirtualmachine Miscellaneous Concurrentremoteconsoleconnectionstoavirtualmachine
1. Sameasthemaximumvirtualmachinememorysize. 2. AnycombinationofsupportedSCSIvirtualstoragecontrollers.FourParavirtualSCSIadapters maybeusedonlyifthevirtualmachinebootsfromadeviceattachedtoanIDEcontroller,orfrom thenetwork. 3. Anycombinationofdisk,CDROMorVMDirectPathSCSItarget. 4. LimitedbymaximumVMFSfilesize(assumes8MBVMFSblocksize). 5. Supportstwochannels(primaryandsecondary)eachwithamasterandslavedevice. 6. DevicescanbeeitherCDROMordisk. 7. BIOSisconfiguredforonefloppydevice. 8. AnycombinationofsupportedvirtualNICs. 9. RequiresI/OMMUonhost.

Maximum

108

3 4

29 60

40

ESX Host Maximums

ThefollowingtablescontainconfigurationmaximumsrelatedtoESXhosts.

StorageMaximumsonpage 2 ComputeMaximumsonpage 4 MemoryMaximumsonpage 4 NetworkingMaximumsonpage 5 ResourcePoolandClusterMaximumsonpage 6

Storage Maximums
VMFS2issupportedonESX3.0through3.5. Table 2containsconfigurationmaximumsrelatedtoESXhoststorage. Table 2. Storage Maximums
Item VMFS-General Rawdevicemapping(RDM)size Volumesize Virtualmachinespervolume Volumesperhost Extentspervolume Hostspercluster 2TBminus512B 64TBminus16K 256 256 32 32 Maximum

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Configuration Maximums

Table 2. Storage Maximums (Continued)

Item Extentssize MaxI/Osize(beforesplits) VMFS-2 Filespervolume Blocksize Filesize(blocksize=1MB) Filesize(blocksize=8MB) Filesize(blocksize=64MB) Filesize(blocksize=256MB) VMFS-3 VMFS3volumesconfiguredperhost Filespervolume Blocksize Filesize(blocksize=1MB) Filesize(blocksize=2MB) Filesize(blocksize=4MB) Filesize(blocksize=8MB) Fibre Channel LUNsperhost LUNsize PathstoaLUN Totalpathsonahost LUNsconcurrentlyopenedbyallvirtualmachines LUNID HBAsperhost HBAports TargetsperHBA NFS DefaultNFSdatastores NFSdatastores Hardware iSCSI Initiators LUNsperhost LUNsconcurrentlyused Initiatorportsperhost Totalpathsonahost PathstoaLUN Dynamictargetsperadapterport Statictargetsperadapterport 2562 256 4 1024 8 642 612 8 64(requireschanges toadvancedsettings) 2562 2TBminus512B 32 1024 256 255 8 16 256 256 ~30,7201 8MB 256GBminus512B 512GBminus512B 1TBminus512B 2TBminus512B 256+(64xadditional extents) 256MB 456GB 2TB 27TB 64TB Maximum 2TBminus512B 32MB

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Configuration Maximums

Table 2. Storage Maximums (Continued)

Item Software iSCSI Initiators LUNsperhost LUNsconcurrentlyused NICsportboundwiththesoftwareiSCSIstackperserver Targets(thesumofstatictargetsanddynamictargetsmaynotexceedthisfigure) PathstoaLUN Totalpaths
1. Sufficienttosupportthemaximumvirtualmachines. 2. Includeslocaldevices/disks.

Maximum

2562 256 8 2562 8 1024

Compute Maximums
Table 3containsconfigurationmaximumsrelatedtoESXhostcomputeresources. Table 3. Compute Maximums
Item VirtualCPUsperhost Virtualmachinesperhost Logicalprocessorsperhost VirtualCPUsperphysicalcore
1. Specificsolutionlimitsmaybelower;pleasecheckindividualsolutionlimitsformaximum supportedconfigurations. 2. LogicalCPUsperhost=CPUsocketsxcores/socketxthreads/core.Regardlessofthehosts configurationofCPUsockets,cores/socketorthreadsperCPUcore,thetotalnumberoflogical CPUs(hardwarethreads)maynotexceedthisnumber.LogicalCPUsinexcessofthisnumberare ignored. 3. TheachievablenumberofvCPUspercoredependsontheworkloadandspecificsofthehardware. FormoreinformationseethevSphere4.0PerformanceBestPracticesandBenchmarkingGuidelines.

Maximum 512 3201 642 203

Memory Maximums
Table 4containsconfigurationmaximumsrelatedtoESXhostmemory. Table 4. Memory Maximums

Item SizeofRAMperhost MaximumRAMallocatedtoserviceconsole MinimumRAMallocatedtoserviceconsole Swapfiles Swapfilesize

Maximum 1TB 800MB 300MB 1pervirtualmachine Sameasmaxvirtual machineRAM

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Configuration Maximums

Networking Maximums
Thefollowinglimitsrepresentachievablemaximumconfigurationlimitsfornetworkinginenvironments wherenoothermorerestrictivelimitsapply.Forexample,vCenterServerlimits,thelimitsimposedby featuressuchasHAorDRS,andotherconfigurationsthatmightimposerestrictionsmustbeconsideredwhen deployinglargescalesystems. Table 5containsconfigurationmaximumsrelatedtoESXhostnetworking. Table 5. Networking Maximums
Item Physical NICs
1

Maximum

e1000NICsEthernetports(IntelPCIxNIC) e1000eNICsEthernetports(IntelPCIeNIC) igb1GBEthernetports(Intel) tg31GBEthernetports(Broadcom) bnx21GBEthernetports(Broadcom) forcedeth1GBEthernetports(Nvidia) s2io10GBEthernetports(Neterion) nx_nic10GBEthernetports(NetXen) ixgbeOplin10GBEthernetports(Intel) bnx2x10GBEthernetports(Broadcom) Infinibandports(refertoVMwareCommunitySupport) PCI VMDirectPath Devices2 PCIVMDirectPathdevicesperhost vNetwork Standard Switch Totalvirtualnetworkswitchportsperhost(vDSandvSSports) Virtualnetworkswitchportsperstandardswitch Portgroupsperstandardswitch Standardswitchesperhost vNetwork Distributed Switch Totalvirtualnetworkswitchportsperhost(vDSandvSSports) DistributedvirtualnetworkswitchportspervCenter DistributedportgroupspervCenter DistributedswitchespervCenter Hostsperdistributedswitch
1. MellanoxTechnologiesInfiniBandHCAdevicedriversareavailabledirectlyfromMellanox Technologies.PleaserefertoMellanoxforsupportstatusofInfiniBandHCAswithESX.Infiniband driversforESXihostsarenotavailable. http://www.mellanox.com 2. Theselimitsaresupportedwithstandardswitchesanddistributedvirtualswitches.

32 32 16 32 16 2 4 4 4 4 N/A1

4096 4088 512 248

4096 6000 512 16 64

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Configuration Maximums

Resource Pool and Cluster Maximums

Table 6containsconfigurationmaximumsrelatedtoESXhostresourcepools. Table 6. Resource Pool Maximums
Item HA Cluster HostsperHAcluster VirtualmachinesperhostinHAclusterwith8orfewerhosts VirtualmachinesperhostinHAclusterwith9ormorehosts Failoverhostspercluster Failoveraspercentageofcluster DRS Cluster HostsperDRScluster VirtualmachinesperDRScluster VirtualmachinesperhostinDRScluster Resource Pool Resourcepoolsperhost Childrenperresourcepool Treedepthperresourcepool TreedepthperresourcepoolinaDRScluster Resourcepoolspercluster
1. Poweredonvirtualmachines.

Maximum

32 100 40 4 50%

32 12801 256

4096 1024 12 10 512

vCenter Server Maximums

Table 7containsconfigurationmaximumsrelatedtovCenterServer. Table 7. vCenter Server Maximums
Item vCenter Server Scalability Hosts(32bitOSserver) Poweredonvirtualmachines(32bitOSserver) Registeredvirtualmachines(32bitOSserver) Hosts(64bitOSserver) Poweredonvirtualmachines(64bitOSserver) Registeredvirtualmachines(64bitOSserver) LinkedvCenterServersystems HostsinLinkedmodeenvironment PoweredonvirtualmachinesinLinkedmodeenvironment RegisteredvirtualmachineinLinkedmodeenvironment ConcurrentvSphereclientconnections(32bitOSserver) ConcurrentvSphereclientconnections(64bitOSserver) Hostsperdatacenter 200 2000 3000 300 3000 4500 10 1000 10000 15000 15 30 100 Maximum

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Configuration Maximums

Table 7. vCenter Server Maximums (Continued)

Item Concurrent Operations Concurrentprovisioningoperationsperhost Concurrentprovisioningoperationsperdatastore ConcurrentVMotionoperationsperhost ConcurrentVMotionoperationsperVMFS3datastore ConcurrentStorageVMotionoperationsperhost ConcurrentStorageVMotionoperationsperdatastore ConcurrentoperationspervCenterServer
1. Configurable,provisioningoperationsincludeclone,relocate. 2. Configurable.

Maximum

81 81 22 42 22 4 96

vCenter Server Extensions

ThefollowingtablescontainconfigurationmaximumsrelatedtovCenterServerextensions.

VMwarevCenterUpdateManageronpage 7 VMwarevCenterOrchestratoronpage 8 VMwarevCenterConverteronpage 8 vSphereStorageManagementInitiativeSpecification(SMIS)onpage 8

VMware vCenter Update Manager

Table 8containsconfigurationmaximumsforvCenterUpdateManager. Table 8. vCenter Update Manager Maximums
Item vCenter Update Manager Scalability Concurrenthostsscanned(64bitOSserver) Concurrenthostsscanned(32bitOSserver) Concurrentvirtualmachinesscanned(64bitOSserver) Concurrentvirtualmachinesscanned(32bitOSserver) CiscoVDSupdateanddeployment Concurrent Operations VirtualmachineremediationperESXhost PoweredonWindowsvirtualmachinescanperESXhost PoweredoffWindowsvirtualmachinescanperESXhost PoweredonLinuxvirtualmachinescanperESXhost VMwareToolsscanperESXhost VMwareToolsupgradeperESXhost Virtualmachinehardwarescanperhost Virtualmachinehardwareupgradeperhost VirtualmachineremediationperVUMserver PoweredonWindowsvirtualmachinescanperVUMserver PoweredoffWindowsvirtualmachinescanperVUMserver 5 6 6 145 145 145 145 145 48 72 10 300 200 4000 200 70 Maximum

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Configuration Maximums

Table 8. vCenter Update Manager Maximums (Continued)

Item PoweredonLinuxvirtualmachinescanVUMserver VMwareToolsscanperVUMserver VMwareToolsupgradeperVUMserver ESXhostscanperVUMserver ESXhostremediationperVUMserver ESXhostupgradeperVUMserver ESXhostupgradepercluster Maximum 145 145 145 72 8 48 1

VMware vCenter Orchestrator

Table 9containsconfigurationmaximumsforvCenterOrchestrator. Table 9. vCenter Orchestrator Maximums
Item ConnectedvCenterServersystems ConnectedESX/ESXiservers Connectedvirtualmachines Concurrentrunningworkflows Maximum 10 100 3000 150

VMware vCenter Converter

Table 10containsconfigurationmaximumsforvCenterConverter. Table 10. vCenter Converter Maximums
Item Concurrentimport/exporttasks(assumesnoloadonvCenterServersystem) Maximum 16

vSphere Storage Management Initiative - Specification (SMI-S)

Table 11containsconfigurationmaximumsforvSphereSMIS. Table 11. vSphere SMI-S Maximums
Item NumberofvCenterServersystemsconnected NumberofESX/ESXihostsconnected NumberofESX/ESXihostsmanagedinvCenterServer NumberofvirtualmachinesregisteredinvCenterServer NumberofdatastoresregisteredinvCenterServer Maximum 1 1 100 1000 100

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