Maximum ESX 3.5 ESX4.0/U1 ESX4.

1
Virtual Machine Maximums
Number of virtual CPUs per virtual machine 4 8 8
Size of RAM per virtual machine 64 GB 255 GB 255 GB
Number of remote consoles to a virtual machine 10 40 40

Same as max Same as max

virtual virtual
Size of a virtual machine swap file 64 GB machine RAM machine RAM
Raw Device Mapping size (TB) 2 2 2
Number of hosts per cluster 32 32 32
Number of VMFS volumes configured per server 256 256 256
Number of extents per VMFS volume 32 32 32
Number of Host Bus Adapters (HBA) of any type 16 8 8
Number of targets per HBA (iSCSI HBA) 15(64) 256 256
VMFS-3
Extent size 2TB 2TB 2TB
Volume size 64 TB (2TB*32) 64 TB (2TB*32) 64 TB (2TB*32)
File size (block size=1MB) 256 GB 256 GB 256 GB
File size (block size=2MB) 512 Gb 512 Gb 512 Gb
File size (block size=4MB) 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB
File size (block size=8MB) 2 TB 2 TB 2 TB
Fibre Channel
LUNs per server 256 256 256
LUN size 2TB 2TB 2TB
Number of paths to a LUN 32 32 32
Number of total paths on a server 1024 1024 1024
LUNs concurrently opened by all virtual machines 256 256 256
LUN ID 255 255 255
NAS
Default number of NAS datastores 8 8 8
Number of NAS datastores 32 64 64
Hardware and Software iSCSI Initiators
LUNs per server 256 256 256
Hardware iSCSI Initiators per server 2 4 4
Targets 64 64 64
Compute Maximums
Number of virtual CPUs per server 192 512 512
Number of virtual machines per server 170 320 320
Number of cores per server 32 20 25
Number of virtual CPUs per core 20 25 25
Memory Maximums
Size of RAM per server 256GB 1TB 1TB
RAM allocated to service console 800MB 800MB 800MB
Minimum RAM allocated to Service Console 272MB 300 MB 272MB
vNetwork Standard Switch
Total virtual network switch ports per host (vDS and 4096 4096 4096
Virtual network switch ports per standard switch 1016 4088 4088
Standard switches per host 127 248 248
vNetwork Distributed Switch
Distributed virtual network switch ports per vCenter N/A 6000 20000
Distributed port groups per vCenter N/A 512 5000
Distributed switches per vCenter N/A 16 32
Hosts per distributed switch N/A 64 350
Distributed switches per Host N/A 16
Resource Pool Maximums
Number of resource pools per host 512 4096 4096
Number of children per resource pool 256 1024 1024
Number of resource pools per cluster 128 512 512
VirtualCenter Maximums
Hosts (32-bit OS server) 200 200 N/A
Powered on virtual machines (32-bit OS server) 2000 2000 N/A
Registered virtual machines (32-bit OS server) 2000 3000 N/A
Hosts (64-bit OS server) 300 1000
Powered on virtual machines (64-bit OS server) N/A 3000 10000
Registered virtual machines (64-bit OS server) N/A 4500 15000
Linked vCenter Server systems N/A 10 10
Hosts in Linked mode environment N/A 100 3000
Powered-on virtual machines in Linked mode N/A 10000 30000
Registered virtual machine in Linked mode N/A 15000 50000
Concurrent vSphere client connections (32-bit OS
server) N/A 15 N/A
Concurrent vSphere client connections (64-bit OS
server) N/A 30 100
Hosts per datacenter N/A 100 400
VMware vCenter Orchestrator N/A
Connected vCenter Server systems N/A 10 10
Connected ESX/ESXi servers N/A 100 100
Connected virtual machines N/A 3000 15000
Concurrent running workflows N/A 150 150

Concurrent vMotion operations per VMFS3 datastore N/A N/A 128

Concurrent Storage vMotion operations per host N/A N/A 2
Concurrent Storage vMotion operations per datastore N/A N/A 8

Fault Tolerance maximums

Virtual disks N/A N/A 16
Virtual CPUs per virtual machine N/A N/A 1
RAM per FT VM (GB) N/A N/A 64
Virtual machines per host N/A N/A 4