Individual ESXi Host Management Only – This is nothing new as the same applied to earlier versions of the vSphere Hypervisor (ie: free ESXi), though with this free version there is no way to centrally manage multiple instances of the free ESXi hosts via the vSphere Client. The only counter argument to this being that with the increase in CPU power and the reduction in cost of high capacity (eg: 8GB+) memory DIMMs single standalone servers, such as server white boxes are often able to run more than 32GB at quite a low price point, meaning admins/lab enthusiasts are wanting to more fully utilise/sweat their hardware greater than the 32GB memory limit found with the vSphere Hypervisor. This is pretty generous considering that this is the free version of the ESXi 5.1 hypervisor and that most use cases for this free version of ESXi will be for SMBs and lab environments, both of which won’t likely have a requirement to run an excessive amount of virtual machines (VMs). Physical Memory Limited to 32GB – Although vRAM has now been removed from VMware’s vSphere licensing model, the free vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) does contain a physical memory limit of 32GB. vSphere Free ESXi 5.1 Hypervisor Limitations In the following section I will provide you with a summary of what these limitations are, which will hopefully assist you in deciding whether the free vSphere hypervisor will be sufficient for your needs or whether you should be looking at a paid version of vSphere. But what do the changes to vSphere 5.1 mean for the free ESXi hypervisor? Many of these vSphere lab environments, due to the cost of licensing, aren’t running fully licensed copies of vSphere with the free vSphere ESXi (aka vSphere Hypervisor) alternative being the preferred option. As well as production environments, many of you, such as myself, run our own vSphere labs for testing, education and just plain fun (note to self: must get out more). Check out my earlier post here for details and information on “What’s New” in vSphere 5.1. With the release of VMware vSphere 5.1 many of you are no doubt looking at the benefits it will provide by upgrading your existing vSphere implementation or rolling out a fresh vSphere 5.1 install into your business’s IT production environment.
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