VMware Topics
Configuration Maximums
VMware Infrastructure 3
Revision Date (yyyymmdd): 20071220
When you are selecting and configuring your virtual and physical equipment, you must stay at or below the maximums supported by VMware® Infrastructure 3. The following tables provide information about supported configuration maximums for virtual machines, ESX Server hosts, and VirtualCenter for the ESX Server 3.0.1 and VirtualCenter 2.0.1 releases. “Virtual Machine Maximums” on page 1 “ESX Server Host Maximums” on page 2 “VirtualCenter Maximums” on page 4 The limits presented in this document can be affected by other factors, such as hardware dependencies. For more information about supported hardware, see the appropriate ESX Server 3.x Hardware Compatibility Guide.
Virtual Machine Maximums
The following table contains configuration maximums related to virtual machines. Table 1. Virtual Machine Maximums
Item SCSI controllers per virtual machine Devices per SCSI controller Devices per virtual machine (Windows) Devices per virtual machine (Linux) Size of SCSI disk Number of virtual CPUs per virtual machine Size of RAM per virtual machine Number of NICs per virtual machine Number of IDE devices per virtual machine Number of floppy devices per virtual machine Number of parallel ports per virtual machine Maximum 4 15 60 60 2TB 4 16384MB 4 4 2 2
If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to: docfeedback@vmware.com © 2006-2007 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Protected by one or more of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,397,242, 6,496,847, 6,704,925, 6,711,672, 6,725,289, 6,735,601, 6,785,886, 6,789,156, 6,795,966, 6,880,022, 6,944,699, 6,961,806, 6,961,941, 7,069,413, 7,082,598, 7,089,377, 7,111,086, 7,111,145, 7,117,481, 7,149, 843, 7,155,558, 7,222,221, 7,260,815, 7,260,820, 7,269,683, 7,275,136, 7,277,998, 7,277,999, 7,278,030, 7,281,102; and 7,290,253 patents pending. VMware, the VMware “boxes” logo and design, Virtual SMP and VMotion are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
Configuration Maximums
Table 1. Virtual Machine Maximums (Continued)
Item Number of serial ports per virtual machine Size of a virtual machine swap file Number of virtual PCI devices: NICs, SCSI controllers, audio devices (VMware Server only), and video cards (exactly one is present in every virtual machine). Number of remote consoles to a virtual machine Maximum 2 16384MB 6
10
ESX Server Host Maximums
The following tables contain configuration maximums related to ESX Server hosts. “Storage Maximums” on page 2 “Compute Maximums” on page 3 “Memory Maximums” on page 3 “Networking Maximums” on page 4
Storage Maximums
The following table contains configuration maximums related to ESX Server host storage. Table 2. Storage Maximums
Item Block size (MB) Raw Device Mapping size (TB) Recommended number of hosts that can share a VMFS volume while running virtual machines against that volume. Number of hosts per virtual cluster Number of volumes configured per server Number of extents per volume VMFS-2 Extent size Volume size File size (block size = 1MB) File size (block size = 8MB) File size (block size = 64MB) File size (block size = 256MB) Number of files per volume VMFS-3 Volume size (block size = 1MB) Volume size (block size = 2MB) Volume size (block size = 4MB) Volume size (block size = 8MB) File size (block size = 1MB) File size (block size = 8MB) Number of files per directory ~16TB‐4GB ~32TB‐8GB ~64TB‐16GB 64TB 256GB 2TB unlimited 2TB1 64TB 456GB 2TB 27TB 64TB 256 + (64 x number of extents) Maximum 8 2 32 32 256 32
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Configuration Maximums
Table 2. Storage Maximums (Continued)
Item Number of directories per volume Number of files per volume Fibre Channel LUNs per server LUN size SCSI controllers per server Devices per SCSI controller Number of paths to a LUN Number of total paths LUNs concurrently opened by all virtual machines LUN ID NAS Default number of NAS datastores Number of NAS datastores NAS datastores concurrently opened by all virtual machines Hardware and Software iSCSI initiators LUNs per server Hardware iSCSI initiators per server Targets 1. Minimum = 100MBs 256 2 64 8 32 (requires changes to advanced settings) 32 256 2TB 16 16 32 1024 256 255 Maximum unlimited unlimited
Compute Maximums
The following table contains configuration maximums related to ESX Server host compute resources. Table 2. Compute Maximums
Item Number of virtual CPUs per server Number of cores per server Number of (hyperthreaded) logical processors per server Number of virtual CPUs per core Maximum 128 32 32 8
Memory Maximums
The following table contains configuration maximums related to ESX Server host memory. Table 3. Memory Maximums
Item Size of RAM per server RAM allocated to service console Maximum 64GB 800MB
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3
Configuration Maximum Guidelines
Networking Maximums
The following table contains configuration maximums related to ESX Server host networking. Table 4. Networking Maximums
Item Physical NICs Number of e100 NICs Number of e1000 NICs Number of Broadcom NICs Advanced, physical traits Number of port groups Number of NICs in a team Number of Ethernet ports Virtual NICs/switches/VLANs Number of virtual NICs per virtual switch Number of virtual switches Number of port groups (VLANs) 1016 127 4069 512 32 32 26 32 20 Maximum
VirtualCenter Maximums
The following table contains configuration maximums related to VirtualCenter. Table 5. VirtualCenter Maximums
Item Number of virtual machines (for management server scalability) Number of hosts per DRS cluster Number of hosts per HA cluster Number of hosts per VirtualCenter server Maximum 1500 32 16 100
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