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VMware ESX and VMware ESXi
• Provide advanced business continuity protection at lower VMware ESXi. VMware ESX relies on a Linux operating system,
cost. Ensure application availability during hardware failures or called the service console, to perform some management
server and storage maintenance and upgrades. functions including executing scripts and installing third-party
agents for hardware monitoring, backup or systems
• Manage and control centralized virtual desktops. Provide
management. The service console has been removed from
standardized enterprise desktop environments hosted in virtual
VMware ESXi, dramatically reducing its footprint. By removing
machines that end users can access through thin clients or PCs.
the service console, VMware ESXi completes an ongoing trend of
• Streamline software development and testing. Consolidate migrating management functionality from this local command-
disparate development, testing and staging environments line interface to remote management tools. The functionally of
involving multiple operating systems and multi-tier the service console is replaced by remote command-line
applications on the same hardware. interfaces and adherence to system management standards.
• Re-host legacy applications. Migrate legacy operating systems
and software applications to virtual machines running on new Key Features of VMware ESX and VMware ESXi
hardware for better reliability. Summary of Key New Features
VMware ESXi is also available as a free download for deployment • 64-bit architecture.
as a single-server virtualization solution. IT administrators can Benefit from improved performance and support for up to 1TB
use the freely available VMware vSphere™ Client to manage RAM on physical hosts.
VMware ESXi to create and manage virtual machines. • Performance optimizations for virtualized workloads.
VMware ESX and ESXi 4.0 have undergone performance
How Do VMware ESX and VMware ESXi Work? optimizations for specific business-critical applications such
as Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft
VMware ESX and VMware ESXi install directly on the server
Exchange. Get up to 8,900 database transactions per second,
hardware, inserting a robust virtualization layer between the
200,000 I/O operations per second, and up to 16,000
hardware and the operating system. VMware ESX and ESXi
Exchange mailboxes per host.
partition a physical server into multiple secure and portable
virtual machines that can run side by side on the same physical • Performance improvements for iSCSI storage.
server. Each virtual machine represents a complete system—with Leverage a combination of new in-guest virtualization-optimized
processors, memory, networking, storage and BIOS—so that an SCSI drivers and VMkernel-level storage stack optimizations to
operating system and software applications can be installed and dramatically improve performance for I/O-intensive applications
run in the virtual machine without any modification. Virtual such as databases and messaging applications.
machines are also completely isolated from each other by the
• Support for larger virtual machines and powerful
virtualization layer, thus preventing a crash or configuration error
server hardware.
in one virtual machine from affecting the others.
Take advantage of hardware systems with up to 64 physical
Sharing the physical server resources among a number of virtual CPU cores, 256 virtual CPUs, 1TB RAM, and up to hundreds of
machines increases hardware utilization and dramatically virtual machines on a single host to facilitate large-scale
decreases capital costs. The bare-metal architecture gives consolidation and disaster recovery projects. Configure virtual
VMware ESX and ESXi complete control over the server machines with as much as 255GB RAM.
resources allocated to each virtual machine and provides for
• Support for eight-way virtual SMP.
near-native virtual machine performance and enterprise-class
VMware Virtual Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) enhances
scalability. VMware ESX and ESXi provide virtual machines with
virtual machine performance by enabling a single virtual
built-in high availability, resource management and security
machine to use up to eight physical processors, simultaneously.
features to deliver improved service levels to software
VMware Virtual SMP enables virtualization of the most
applications than static physical environments.
CPU-intensive enterprise applications such as databases,
ERP and CRM.
What is the difference between VMware ESX and
VMware ESXi? • VMware VMsafe™.
VMware VMsafe is a new security technology that helps protect
VMware ESX and VMware ESXi are both bare-metal hypervisors virtualized workloads in ways previously not possible with
that install directly on the server hardware. Both provide physical machines. VMsafe provides a set of security APIs that
industry-leading performance and scalability; the difference enable third-party security products to gain the same visibility
resides in the architecture and the operational management of as VMware ESX or ESXi into the operation of a virtual machine
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VMware ESX and VMware ESXi
to identify and eliminate malware, such as viruses, trojans and connect virtual machines. Use virtual LANs (VLANs) to overlay a
key-loggers. This advanced protection is achieved by granular logical LAN on top of physical LANs to isolate network traffic for
visibility into the virtual machine’s hardware resources such as security and load segregation. Modify network configurations
memory, CPU and disk and its I/O systems. without having to change actual cabling and switch setups.
• VMDirectPath for virtual machines. Advanced Resource Management
Enhance CPU efficiency for applications that require frequent VMware ESX offers advanced resource management capabilities
access to I/O devices by allowing select virtual machines to to improve performance and increase consolidation ratios.
directly access underlying hardware devices.
• Resource management for virtual machines.
• Improved power management. Define advanced resource allocation policies for virtual
Improve energy efficiency with dynamic voltage and frequency machines to improve service levels to software applications.
scaling and support for Intel SpeedStep® and AMD PowerNow!. Establish minimum, maximum and proportional resource
shares for CPU, memory, disk and network bandwidth. Modify
Architecture
allocations while virtual machines are running.
• Bare-metal, 64-bit hypervisor architecture.
Achieve near-native virtual machine performance, reliability • Intelligent CPU virtualization.
and scalability with production-proven hypervisor technology Manage the execution of virtual machine processes with
that runs directly on server hardware, without the need for a intelligent process scheduling and load balancing across all
host operating system. available CPUs on the physical host.
• Virtual disk files. • RAM overcommitment.
Use virtual machine disk (VMDK) files to provide virtual Increase memory utilization by configuring virtual machine
machines access to their own private datastores while giving IT memory that safely exceeds the physical server memory,
administrators the flexibility to create, manage and migrate enabling a greater number of virtual machines to run on a
virtual machine storage as separate, self-contained files that VMware ESX or ESXi host.
can reside on shared storage equipment.
• Transparent page sharing (memory de-duplication).
• VMware vStorage VMFS. Use physical RAM more efficiently by storing memory pages
Eliminate single points of failure and balance storage resources identical across multiple virtual machines only once.
by implementing shared storage for virtual machines with
• Memory ballooning.
VMware vStorage Virtual Machine File System (“VMFS”), a
Shift RAM dynamically from idle virtual machines to
cluster file system that allows multiple VMware ESX hosts to
active workloads. Memory ballooning artificially induces
access a single VMDK file concurrently. VMFS is supported on a
memory pressure within idle virtual machines, forcing them
mix of Fibre Channel SAN, iSCSI SAN, and NAS storage arrays
to use their own paging areas and release memory for active
in a manner that is transparent to application owners and end
virtual machines.
users. Download the VMFS datasheet to learn more about
VMFS, which provides new enhancements such as dynamic • Network traffic shaping.
increase of VMFS volume size. Ensure that critical virtual machines receive priority access to
network bandwidth. Network traffic from virtual machines
• Boot from SAN.
can be prioritized on a “fair share” basis. Network Traffic
Eliminate the need to separately backup local attached server
Shaper manages virtual machine network traffic to meet peak
disks by running VMware ESX hosts on diskless configurations
bandwidth, average bandwidth and burst size constraints.
of blade and rack mount servers.
• Storage I/O traffic prioritization.
• Virtual networking.
Ensure that critical virtual machines receive priority access to
The virtual networking capabilities in VMware ESX and
storage devices by prioritizing I/O traffic on a “fair share” basis.
ESXi allow customers to build complex networks between
virtual machines residing on a single host or across multiple • Improved power management.
installations of VMware ESX and ESXi hosts for production Improve energy efficiency with dynamic voltage and frequency
deployments or development and testing purposes. Configure scaling and support for Intel SpeedStep® and AMD PowerNow!.
each virtual machine with one or more virtual NIC, each
Performance and Scalability
with its own IP and MAC address, to make virtual machines
VMware ESX and VMware ESXi deliver unparalleled performance
indistinguishable from physical machines. Create a simulated
and scalability, enabling even the most resource intensive
network within a VMware ESX host with virtual switches that
production applications to be virtualized.
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VMware ESX and VMware ESXi
• Performance optimizations for virtualized workloads. • Support for new high performance devices and protocols.
VMware ESX and ESXi 4.0 have undergone performance VMware ESX and ESXi support 10Gb Ethernet network cards
optimizations for specific business-critical applications such and storage arrays and Infiniband technology to improve
as Oracle databases, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft virtual machine performance.
Exchange. Get up to 8,900 database transactions per second,
• Support for paravirtualization.
200,000 I/O operations per second, and up to 16,000
VMware ESX and ESXi support para-virtualized Linux guest
Exchange mailboxes per host.
operating systems (Linux kernel 2.6.21 onwards) to improve
• Performance improvements for iSCSI storage. virtual machine performance.
Leverage a combination of new in-guest virtualization-optimized
• VMDirectPath I/O for virtual machines.
SCSI drivers and VMkernel-level storage stack optimizations to
Enhance CPU efficiency for applications that require
dramatically increase performance for I/O-intensive applications
frequent access to I/O devices by allowing select virtual
such as databases and messaging applications.
machines to directly access underlying hardware devices.
• Support for powerful server hardware. Other virtualization features, such as VMware VMotion™,
Take advantage of hardware systems with up to 64 physical hardware independence and sharing of physical I/O devices
CPU cores, 256 virtual CPUs, 1TB RAM, and up to hundreds of will not be available to the virtual machines using this feature.
virtual machines on a single host to facilitate large-scale
High Availability
consolidation and disaster recovery projects.
VMware ESX delivers datacenter-class high availability for virtual
• Support for larger virtual machines. machines.
Configure virtual machines with as much as 255GB RAM.
• Built-in storage access multipathing.
• Support for eight-way virtual SMP. Ensure shared storage availability with SAN multipathing for
VMware Virtual Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) enhances Fibre Channel or iSCSI SAN.
virtual machine performance by enabling a single virtual
• NIC teaming.
machine to use up to eight physical processors, simultaneously.
Give each networked virtual machine built-in NIC failover and
VMware Virtual SMP enables virtualization of the most
load balancing enabling greater hardware availability and fault
CPU-intensive enterprise applications such as databases, ERP
tolerance. NIC teaming policies allow users to configure
and CRM.
multiple active and standby adapters.
• Raw device mapping.
• Support for Microsoft Clustering Services.
Optionally, map SAN LUNs directly to a virtual machine in order
Cluster virtual machines running Microsoft Windows operating
to enable application clustering and array-based snapshot
system across physical hosts.
technology while profiting from the manageability benefits of
VMware vStorage VMFS. Interoperability
VMware ESX and VMware ESXi are optimized, rigorously tested
• Support for hardware virtualization.
and certified across the complete IT stack of servers, storage,
VMware ESX and ESXi provide industry-leading support
operating systems, and software applications allowing for
for next-generation virtualization hardware assist technologies
enterprise-wide standardization.
such as AMD’s Rapid Virtualization Indexing® or Intel’s
Extended Page Tables. • Server hardware.
VMware ESX and ESXi have been certified with industry-leading
• Support for large memory pages.
rack, tower and blade servers from Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP,
VMware ESX and ESXi are the only hypervisors that support
IBM, NEC, Sun Microsystems and Unisys.
large memory pages to improve efficiency of memory access
for guest operating systems. • Storage hardware.
VMware ESX and ESXi are certified with a wide range of storage
• Networking performance optimizations.
systems from Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, Hitachi
VMware ESX and ESXi support a variety of performance offload
Data Systems, IBM, NEC, Network Appliance, StorageTek, Sun
technologies including TCP Segmentation Offloading (TSO),
Microsystems and 3PAR. Internal SATA drives, Direct Attached
VLAN and checksum offloading, and jumbo frames to reduce
Storage (DAS), Network Attached Storage (NAS) and both fibre
the CPU overhead associated with processing network I/O.
channel SAN and iSCSI SAN are supported.
Additionally, virtualization optimized I/O performance features
such as NetQueue is supported which significantly improves
performance in 10 Gigabit Ethernet virtualized environments.
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VMware ESX and VMware ESXi
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VMware ESX and VMware ESXi
VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 877-486-9273 Fax 650-427-5001 www.vmware.com
Copyright © 2009 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at
http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark 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. Item No: VMW_09Q3_DS_ESX_ESXi_USLET_EN_P6_R4