I've noticed in smaller commercial enterprise spaces that designs from some providers use multiple dual redundant VMs one on each host. Customers can still have their own account to log in with - which provides a degree of attribution - they just need to add users directly to the host. This last item might be a deal breaker for some: The free version of ESXi does not offer Active Directory integration. This can be an issue, depending on your environment. Be aware of deal breakers in free ESXiīuilt-in monitoring is another feature absent from the free edition of ESXi. You can still move VMs between data stores, but it's a more complex process and requires downtime. You might notice during day-to-day operations that you can't cluster servers or perform a storage vMotion while servers are still active. This also explains why manufacturers began to license per core, rather than per socket.Ī server that uses free ESXi can support a large number of VMs. Most large production environments only use two socket hosts due to the significant cost per socket under the Enterprise license, so it makes the most sense to increase the core count and reduce physical sockets.

Such a machine would be a potent virtualization host, even without any additional licensing. There is no problem using two hex core Xeon processors, 128 GB RAM and a redundant array of independent disks set up on a single machine. The most current version of ESXi (6.7) has no hardware limitations other than a maximum of two physical CPUs and eight vCPUs per VM. For example, the memory limitation in ESXi 5 was set to 32 GB. VMware has tried to eliminate the physical restrictions from the free ESXi hypervisor. VMware offers a variety of licensing options for vSphere for companies that need advanced features and professional support. VMware vSphere is the name of a software bundle that includes the free ESXi hypervisor, vCenter and the vSphere management client.

Customers have the option to purchase commercial support and software, called vCenter, to help manage multiple ESXi installations. ESXi is a type-1 hypervisor available for free download. The terms ESXi and vSphere are sometimes used interchangeably, but it's important to understand the difference when you compare free and supported versions. The limitations of free ESXi fall into two categories: hardware and functionality. In this case, free ESXi lacks tools and features such as vMotion, Fault Tolerance and vSAN, all of which require a minimum of three nodes to run. Naturally, software you pay for offers more.

Free vsphere license