VMware ESXi
VMware ESXi is the backbone of VMware’s virtualization. It stands for elastic sky x integrated. This is enterprise virtualization software. ESXi is a type 2 hypervisor, it means we can install it directly on server hardware without prior installing any operating system.
The core of ESXi is VMKernal. VMKernal is a software that provides an interface between virtual machines and physical server hardware. VMKernal allocates the memory, CPU, and schedule services on virtual machines. We create virtual machines on the top of the ESXi server.
There are many versions of ESXi that were available such as ESXi 4.0,5.0,5.5,6.0 but now deprecated so as of April 2020 only 6.5 and 6.7. ESXi versions are the supported latest version. Every version has its own features, limitation, and capabilities. In this blog, we will discuss on ESXi 6.5 and 6.7.
ESXi 6.7 Features
Small Footprint – The overall application size of ESXi is less than 150 MB as per VMware. We do not need to carry out heavy software for this.
Performance – The performance of ESXi is very good. It can support up to 128 vCPU and 12 TB of RAM. This much of resources are enough to handle customer’s needs.
Reliability – Thousands of customers are hosted their application on ESXi virtual environment and they are growing their business confidently.
Security – It provided extensive security of your virtual machines by the means of encryption and role-based access to the machines.
Support – There are many companies are working with VMware closely to provide support to the customers. we have strong community support behind ESXi.
Administration – Now VMware focusing on the easiness of management of virtual infrastructure. It provides an HTML5 based interface to access the infrastructure. We also can access it through desktop clients.
ESXi Hardware Requirements
*ESXi 6.7 requires server hardware with 2 core CPUs and a minimum of 4 GB of RAM.
*ESXi 6.7 supports 64-bit x86 processors.
*ESXi 6.7 requires minimum 10 GB of local/SCSI disk or SAN(Storage area network)
These are very basic requirements but in reality, the corporate world does use server hardware having more capacity.
What is ESX and difference between ESX and ESXi ?
This is a very hot topic in an interview of VMware profile, regardless of your profile and level interviewer use to ask about ESX and differences between ESX and ESXi.
Both are the type two hypervisors. ESX is the old model and has been retired from the market. ESXi is the extended version of ESX with new features and capabilities.
ESX (Elastic Sky X) was VMware’s server virtualization platform. In ESX, VMkernel was managed by a console operating system which was also called a Service console. This was Linux based and its main purpose was to provide a Management interface for the host. In ESXi, It does not require a service console to manage the hypervisors.
Here is the major differences between ESX and ESXi
| Features | ESX | ESXi |
| Service Console | Present | Removed |
| Footprint | Large | Small |
| Secure | Less | More |
| Troubleshooting via | Service Console | ESXi Shell |
| Syslog | Supported | Unsupported |
| Authentication | AD | AD |
| Management | Service Console | VMKernal |
| Lockdown Mode | Unavailable | Available |
We hope this will help you to understand about VMWare ESXi. For more information about ESXi please visit more articles on this blog.