VMware vSphere 5.x and 6.x Configuration Maximums

Here updated limits and maximums series details about vmware vsphere 6.

Please find the table summaries below.

Compute

Virtual Machine Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Virtual CPUs per virtual machine (Virtual SMP)	32	64	64	128

Memory

Virtual Machine Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
RAM per virtual machine	1TB	1TB	1TB	4TB
Virtual machine swap file size	1TB	1TB	1TB	4TB

Virtual Peripheral Ports

Virtual Machine Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Serial Ports per virtual machine	4	4	4	32

Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices

Virtual Machine Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Virtual disk size	2TB minus 512 bytes	2TB minus 512 bytes	62TB	62TB
Virtual SATA adapters per virtual machine	-	-	4	4
Virtual SATA devices per virtual SATA adapter	-	-	30	30

Graphics video device

Virtual Machine Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Video memory per virtual machine	128MB	512MB	512MB	512MB

Host CPU maximums

ESXi Host Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Logical CPUs per host	160	160	320	480
NUMA Nodes per host	8	8	16	16

Virtual machine maximums

ESXi Host Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Virtual machines per host	512	512	512	1024
Virtual CPUs per host	2048	2048	4096	4096
Virtual CPUs per core	25	25	32	32

Fault Tolerance maximums

ESXi Host Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Virtual CPUs per virtual machine	1	1	1	4
Virtual CPU per host	-	-	-	8

Memory Maximums

ESXi Host Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
RAM per host	2TB	2TB	4TB	6TB / 12TB on specific OEM certified platform

Fibre Channel

ESXi Host Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
LUN ID	255	255	255	1023

VMFS5

ESXi Host Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Raw Device Mapping size (virtual compatibility)	2TB minus 512 bytes	2TB minus 512 bytes	62TB	62TB
Raw Device Mapping size (physical compatibility)	2TB minus 512 bytes	2TB minus 512 bytes	64TB	64TB
File size	2TB minus 512 bytes	2TB minus 512 bytes	62TB	62TB

Physical NICs

Networking Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
e1000 1Gb Ethernet ports (Intel PCI‐x)	32	32	-	-
tg3 1Gb Ethernet ports (Broadcom)	32	32	32	16 (with NetQueue enabled) 32 (with NetQueue disabled)
bnx2 1Gb Ethernet ports (Qlogic)	-	-	-	16
forcedeth 1Gb Ethernet ports (NVIDIA)	2	2	-	-
elxnet 10Gb Ethernet Ports (Emulex)	-	-	-	8
ixgbe 10Gb Ethernet Ports (Intel)	-	-	8	16
bnx2x 10Gb Ethernet Ports (Qlogic)	-	-	-	8
Combination of 10Gb and 1Gb Ethernet ports	6x 10Gb and 4x 1Gb ports	6x 10Gb and 4x 1Gb ports	8x 10Gb and 4x 1Gb ports	16x 10Gb and 4x 1Gb ports

VMDirectPath limits

Networking Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
SR-IOV number of virtual functions	-	-	64	1024
SR-IOV number of 10G pNICs	-	4	8	8

vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch

Networking Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Maximum active ports per host (VDS and VSS)	1016	1050	1016	1016
Port groups per standard switch	256	256	512	512
Static/Dynamic port groups per distributed switch	-	-	6500	10,000
Distributed virtual network switch ports per vCenter	30,000	60,000	60,000	60,000
Static/dynamic port groups per vCenter	5000	10,000	10,000	10,000
Ephemeral port groups per vCenter	256	256	1016	1016
Distributed switches per vCenter	32	128	128	128
Distributed switches per host	-	-	16	16
VSS portgroups per host	-	-	1000	1000
LACP - LAGs per host	-	-	64	64
LACP - uplink ports per LAG (Team)	-	4	32	32
Hosts per VDS	350	500	1000	1000
NIOC resource pools per vDS	-	-	64	64
Link aggregation groups per vDS	-	1	64	64

Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS)

Cluster and Resource Pool Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Hosts per cluster	32	32	32	64
Virtual machines per cluster	3000	4000	4000	8000
Virtual machines per host	512	512	512	1024
Powered‐on virtual machine config files per datastore in an HA cluster.	-	2048	2048	2048
FT virtual machines per cluster	-	-	-	98
FT virtual machines vCPU per Cluster	-	-	-	256

Resource Pool

Cluster and Resource Pool Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Children per resource pool	1024	1024	1024	1100

vCenter Server Scalability

vCenter Server Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Hosts in linked vCenter Servers	3000	3000	3000	4000
Concurrent vSphere Client connections to vCenter Server	100	100	100	-

vCenter Server Appliance

vCenter Server Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Hosts (with embedded vPostgres database)	-	-	100	1000
Virtual machines (with embedded vPostgres database)	-	-	3000	15,000
Virtual machines (with Oracle database)	-	-	10,000	15,000

vCenter Server Windows embedded/packaged vPostgres

vCenter Server Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Hosts (with embedded vPostgres database)	-	-	-	20
Virtual machines (with embedded vPostgres database)	-	-	-	200

Content Library

vCenter Server Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Total CL items per VC (across all libraries)	-	-	-	200
Total number of libraries per VC	-	-	-	20
Total items per library	-	-	-	200
Maximum number of subscribers per library	-	-	-	5

Host Profile

vCenter Server Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Hosts	-	-	-	21
Powered On virtual machines	-	-	-	100
Datastores	-	-	-	120
Profile Created	-	-	-	1200
Profile Attached	-	-	-	1000

Single Sign On

vCenter Server Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Authentications per second (average)	-	30	-	-

Domain/Replication

Platform Service Controller maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Maximum PSCs per vSphere Domain	-	-	-	8
Maximum PSCs per site, behind a load balancer	-	-	-	4
Maximum objects within a vSphere Domain (Users and Groups)	-	-	-	1,000,000
Maximum tolerance for time skew between PSC nodes	-	-	-	5 minutes

Identity Source

Platform Service Controller maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Maximum Active Directory or OpenLDAP Groups per User for best performance	-	-	-	1015

Enhanced Linked Mode/Lookup Service

Platform Service Controller maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Maximum number of VMware Solutions connected to a single PSC per User for best performance	-	-	-	4
Maximum number of VMware Solutions in a vSphere Domain	-	-	-	10

VMCA/Certificate

Platform Service Controller maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Maximum number of subordinate Certificate Authority servers in the chain within VMware Certificate Authority	-	-	-	6
Maximum cryptographic hash used for PSC Node certificate Domain	-	-	-	1
Maximum RSA Public Key length used for PSC Node certificate	-	-	-	16,384

VMware vCenter Update Manager

vCenter Update Manager Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
ESXi host upgrade per cluster	-	-	1	-

VMware vCenter Orchestrator

vCenter Orchestrator Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Connected vCenter Server systems	10	20	20	20
Connected ESXi instances	100	1280	1280	1280
Connected virtual machines	15,000	35,000	35,000	35,000
Concurrent running workflows	150	300	300	300

Storage DRS

Storage DRS Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Datastores per datastore cluster	32	32	32	64

Virtual SAN ESXi host

Virtual SAN Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Virtual SAN disk groups per host	-	-	-	5
Magnetic disks per disk group	-	-	-	7
SSD disks per disk group	-	-	-	1
Spinning disks in all diskgroups per host	-	-	-	35
Components per Virtual SAN host	-	-	-	9000
Cache tier maximum devices per host	-	-	-	5
Capacity tier maximum devices per diskgroup	-	-	-	7
Capacity tier maximum devices	-	-	-	35

Virtual SAN Cluster

Virtual SAN Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Number of Virtual SAN hosts in a cluster	-	-	-	64
Number of datastores per cluster	-	-	-	1

Virtual SAN virtual machines

Virtual SAN Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Virtual machines per host	-	-	-	200
Virtual machines per cluster	-	-	-	6400
Virtual machine virtual disk size	-	-	-	62TB
Disk stripes per object	-	-	-	12
Percentage of flash read cache reservation	-	-	-	100
Failure to tolerate	-	-	-	3 for VM virtual disk size <= 16 TB 1 for VM virtual disk size > 16 TB
Percentage of object space reservation	-	-	-	100
Virtual SAN networks/physical network fabrics	-	-	-	2

Virtual Volumes

Virtual Volumes Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Data Virtual Volume Size	-	-	-	62TB
Number of Virtual Volumes bound to a host	-	-	-	64,000
Number of PEs per host	-	-	-	256
Storage Container size	-	-	-	2^64
Storage Container per host	-	-	-	256
Maximum outstanding PE I/O operations	-	-	-	128 configurable up to 4096
Configured VPs per host	-	-	-	128
Maximum configured VVol managed storage arrays per host	-	-	-	64

Network I/O Control (NIOC)

Network I/O Control (NIOC) Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Number of resource pools	-	-	-	10,000
Number of uplinks per vds	-	-	-	32
Number of uplinks per host	-	-	-	32
Number of vNIC per host	-	-	-	5120
Max pNIC bandwidth	-	-	-	Approximately 10 Gbits/sec for 10G pNIC Approximately 1 Gbits/sec for 1G pNIC

vCloud Director Maximums

vCloud Director Maximums

vSphere Configuration Item	v5.0	v5.1	v5.5	v6.0
Virtual machine count	20000	30000	50000	-
Powered‐On virtual machine count	10000	10000	30000	-
Virtual machines per vApp	64	128	128	-
vApps per organization	500	3000	5000	-
Number of networks	7500	10000	10000	-
Number of networks	7500	7500	10000	-
Hosts	2000	2000	2000	-
vCenter Servers	25	25	20	-
Catalogs	1000	10000	10000	-
Users	10000	10000	25000	-

vSphere 6.0 finally announced! and not yet released

I would like to share the quick post which details what is in vSphere 6.0 / what is new.


vSphere 6

Virtual Volumes

• Long Distance vMotion
• Cross vSwitch and vCenter vMotion
• vMotion of MSCS VMs using pRDMs
• vMotion L2 adjacency restrictions are lifted!
• vSMP Fault Tolerance
• Content Library
• NFS 4.1 support
• Instant Clone aka VMFork
• vSphere HA Component Protection
• Storage DRS and SRM support
• Storage DRS deep integration with VASA to understand thin provisioned, deduplicated, replicated or compressed datastores!
• Network IO Control per VM reservations
• Storage IOPS reservations
• Introduction of Platform Services Controller architecture for vCenter
• SSO, licensing, certificate authority services are grouped and can be centralized for multiple vCenter Server instances
• Linked Mode support for vCenter Server Appliance
• Web Client performance and usability improvements
• Max Config:
• 64 hosts per cluster
• 8000 VMs per cluster
• 480 CPUs per host
• 12TB of memory
• 1000 VMs per host
• 128 vCPUs per VM
• 4TB RAM per VM

vSphere Replication

• Compression of replication traffic configurable per VM
• Isolation of vSphere Replication host traffic
• vSphere Data Protection now includes all vSphere Data Protection Advanced functionality
• Up to 8TB of deduped data per VDP Appliance
• Up to 800 VMs per VDP Appliance
• Application level backup and restore of SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint
• Replication to other VDP Appliances and EMC Avamar
• Data Domain support

Virtual SAN 6

All flash configurations

Blade enablement through certified JBOD configurations

Fault Domain aka “Rack Awareness”

Capacity planning / “What if scenarios”

Support for hardware-based checksumming / encryption

Disk serviceability (Light LED on Failure, Turn LED on/off manually etc)

Disk / Diskgroup maintenance mode aka evacuation

Virtual SAN Health Services plugin

Greater scale

64 hosts per cluster

200 VMs per host

62TB max VMDK size

New on-disk format enables fast cloning and snapshotting

32 VM snapshots

From 20K IOPS to 40K IOPS in hybrid configuration per host (2x)

90K IOPS with All-Flash per host