Configuration Maximums for VMware Infrastructure 3
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
Table 1 contains configuration maximums related to virtual machines. Table 1. Virtual Machine Maximums
Maximum 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 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 4 15 60 60 2TB 4 16384MB 4 4 2 2 2 16384MB 6
10
VMware, Inc.
1
Configuration Maximum Guidelines
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 3
Storage Maximums
Table 2 contains configuration maximums related to ESX Server host storage. Table 2. Storage Maximums
Maximum Block size (MB) Raw Device Mapping size (TB) Simultaneous power ons of virtual machines on different hosts against a single VMFS volume (measured in number of hosts). Number of hosts per virtual cluster Number of volumes configured per server Number of extents per volume VMFS‐2 Volume size File size (block size=1 MB) File size (block size=8 MB) File size (block size=64MB) File size (block size=256MB) Number of files per volume 2TB x number of extents1 456GB 2TB 27TB 64TB 256 + (64 x number of extents) ~16TB‐4GB2 ~32TB‐8GB ~64TB‐16GB 64TB 256GB 2TB unlimited unlimited unlimited 256 16 16 32 256 255 8 2 32 32 256 32
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 Number of directories per volume Number of files per volume Fibre Channel LUNs per server SCSI controllers per server Devices per SCSI controller Number of paths to a LUN LUNs concurrently opened by all virtual machines LUN ID
2
VMware, Inc.
Configuration Maximum Guidelines
Table 2. Storage Maximums (Continued)
Maximum NFS LUNs per server SCSI controllers per server LUNs concurrently opened by all virtual machines Hardware & software iSCSI LUNs per server SCSI controllers per server
1 2
256 2 256 256 2
Minimum = 100MB ~ denotes an approximate value.
Compute Maximums
Table 3 contains configuration maximums related to ESX Server host compute resources. Table 3. Compute Maximums
Maximum Number of virtual CPUs per server Number of cores per server Number of (hyperthreaded) logical processors per server Number of virtual CPUs per core 128 32 32 8
Memory Maximums
Table 4 contains configuration maximums related to ESX Server host memory. Table 4. Memory Maximums
Maximum Size of RAM per server RAM allocated to service console 64GB 800MB
Networking Maximums
Table 5 contains configuration maximums related to ESX Server host networking. Table 5. Networking Maximums
Maximum 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 Number of virtual NICs per virtual switch Number of virtual switches 1016 127 512 32 32 26 32 20
VMware, Inc.
3
Configuration Maximum Guidelines
VirtualCenter Maximums
Table 6 contains configuration maximums related to VirtualCenter. Table 6. VirtualCenter Maximums
Maximum 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 1500 32 16 100
VMware, Inc. 3145 Porter Drive Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com © 2006 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, 6,961,941, 6,961,806, 6,944,699, 7,069,413; 7,082,598 and 7,089,377; 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. Revision: 20061208 Item: VI-ENG-Q406-311
4
VMware, Inc.