vsp_41_config_max
Topic Configuration Maximums
VMware? vSphere 4.1
When you select and configure your virtual and physical equipment, you must stay at or below the maximums supported by vSphere 4.1. The limits presented in the following tables represent tested, recommended limits, and they are fully supported by VMware.
?“Virtual Machine Maximums” on page1
?“ESX Host Maximums” on page2
?“vCenter Server Maximums” on page6
?“vCenter Server Extensions” on page6
The limits presented in this document can be affected by other factors, such as hardware dependencies. For more information about supported hardware, see the appropriate ESX hardware compatibility guide. Consult individual solution limits to ensure that you do not exceed supported configurations for your environment.
The Configuration Maximums for vSphere 4.1 covers ESX, ESXi, and vCenter Server.
Virtual Machine Maximums
Table1 contains configuration maximums related to virtual machines.
Table1. Virtual Machine Maximums
Item Maximum
Compute
Virtual CPUs per virtual machine (Virtual SMP)8
Memory
RAM per virtual machine255GB
Virtual machine swap file size255GB
Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices
Virtual SCSI adapters per virtual machine41
Virtual SCSI targets per virtual SCSI adapter 152
Virtual SCSI targets per virtual machine60
Disk size2TB minus 512bytes
IDE controllers per virtual machine13
IDE devices per virtual machine4
Floppy controllers per virtual machine1
Floppy devices per virtual machine2
Table1. Virtual Machine Maximums (Continued)
Item Maximum
Networking Virtual Devices
Virtual NICs per virtual machine10
Virtual Peripheral Ports
USB controllers per virtual machine1
USB devices connected to a virtual machine20
Parallel ports per virtual machine3
Serial ports per virtual machine4
Miscellaneous
Concurrent remote console connections to a virtual machine40
1.Any combination of supported SCSI virtual storage controllers. Four Paravirtual SCSI adapters
may be used only if the virtual machine boots from a device attached to an IDE controller, or from
the network.
2.Any combination of disk, CD‐ROM or VMDirectPath SCSI target.
3.Supports two channels (primary and secondary) each with a master and slave device.
ESX Host Maximums
The following tables contain configuration maximums related to ESX hosts.
?“Compute Maximums” on page2
?“Memory Maximums” on page3
?“Storage Maximums” on page3
?“Networking Maximums” on page4
?“Resource Pool and Cluster Maximums” on page5
Compute Maximums
Table2 contains configuration maximums related to ESX host compute resources.
Table2. Compute Maximums
Item Maximum
Host CPU maximums
Logical CPUs per host128
Virtual machine maximums
Virtual machines per host320
Virtual CPUs per host512
Virtual CPUs per core251
Fault Tolerance maximums
Virtual disks16
Virtual CPUs per virtual machine1
RAM per FT VM (GB)64
Virtual machines per host4
1.The achievable number of vCPUs per core depends on the workload and specifics of the
hardware. For more information see the latest version of Performance Best Practices for VMware
vSphere.
Memory Maximums
Table 3 contains configuration maximums related to ESX host memory.
Storage Maximums
Table 4 contains configuration maximums related to ESX host storage.
Table 3. Memory Maximums
Item Maximum
RAM per host 1TB
Maximum RAM allocated to service console 800MB
Minimum RAM allocated to service console 272MB
Number of swap files 1 per virtual machine
Swap file size Same as maximum virtual machine RAM
Table 4. Storage Maximums
Item Maximum
iSCSI Physical
LUNs per server 256
Qlogic 1Gb iSCSI HBA initiator ports per server 4
Broadcom 1Gb iSCSI HBA initiator ports per server 4
Broadcom 10Gb iSCSI HBA initiator ports per server 4
NICs that can be associated or port bound with the software iSCSI stack per server
8
Number of total paths on a server 1024
Number of paths to a LUN (software iSCSI and hardware iSCSI)8
Qlogic iSCSI: dynamic targets per adapter port 64
Qlogic iSCSI: static targets per adapter port 62
Broadcom 1Gb iSCSI HBA targets 64
Broadcom 10Gb iSCSI HBA targets 64
Software iSCSI targets 2561
NAS
NFS mounts per host 64
Fibre Channel
LUNs per host 256
LUN size 2TB
LUN ID 255
LUNs concurrently opened by all virtual machines 256
Number of paths to a LUN 32
Number of total paths on a server 1024
Number of HBAs of any type 8
HBA ports 16
Targets per HBA 256
VMFS
Raw device mapping (RDM) size2TB minus 512bytes
Volume size64TB
Volumes per host256
Hosts per volume64
VMFS-3
Block size 8MB
File size (1MB block size)256GB
File size (2MB block size)512GB
File size (4MB block size)1TB
File size (8MB block size)2TB minus 512bytes
Files per volume Approximately 30,720
1.The sum of static targets (manually assigned IP addresses) and dynamic targets (IP addresses
assigned to discovered targets) may not exceed this number.
Networking Maximums
The following limits represent achievable maximum configuration limits for networking in environments
where no other more restrictive limits apply (for example, vCenter Server limits, the limits imposed by
features such as HA or DRS, and other configurations that might impose restrictions must be considered when deploying large scale systems).
For additional information about these maximums, see KB 1020808.
Table5 contains configuration maximums related to ESX host networking.
Table5. Networking Maximums
Item Maximum
Physical NICs
e1000 1GB Ethernet ports (Intel PCI‐x)32
e1000e 1GB Ethernet ports (Intel PCI‐e)24
igb 1GB Ethernet ports (Intel)16
tg3 1GB Ethernet ports (Broadcom)32
bnx2 1GB Ethernet ports (Broadcom)161
forcedeth 1GB Ethernet ports (NVIDIA)2
s2io 10GB Ethernet ports (Neterion)4
nx_nic 10GB Ethernet ports (NetXen)4
ixgbe Oplin 10GB Ethernet ports (Intel)4
bnx2x 10GB Ethernet ports (Broadcom)4
Infiniband ports (refer to VMware Community Support)N/A2
VMDirectPath limits
VMDirectPath PCI/PCIe devices per host8
VMDirectPath PCI/PCIe devices per virtual machine4
vNetwork Standard and Distributed Switch
Total virtual network switch ports per host (vDS and vSS ports)4096
Maximum ACTIVE ports per host (vDS and VSS)1016
Virtual network switch creation ports per standard switch4088
Port groups per standard switch512
Static or Dynamic Port groups per distributed switch5000
Ephemeral Port groups per distributed switch1016
Ports per distributed switch20000
Distributed virtual network switch ports per vCenter20000
Static or Dynamic Port groups per vCenter5000
Ephemeral Port groups per vCenter1016
Distributed switches per vCenter32
Distributed switches per Host16
Hosts per distributed switch350
1.Recommended number of ports for bnx2 when in MSI‐X mode and jumbo configuration is 6.
This value takes precedence over recommendations in KB 1020808 for this configuration.
2.Mellanox Technologies InfiniBand HCA device drivers are available directly from Mellanox
Technologies. Refer to Mellanox for support status of InfiniBand HCAs with
ESX.https://www.wendangku.net/doc/a13158327.html,
Resource Pool and Cluster Maximums
Table6 contains configuration maximums related to ESX host resource pools and clusters.
Table6. Cluster Maximums
Item Maximum Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS)
Hosts per cluster32
Virtual machines per cluster3000
Virtual machines per host320
Maximum concurrent host HA failover 4
Failover as percentage of cluster50%
Resource pools per cluster512
Resource Pool
Resource pool tree depth81
Resource pools per host 4096
Children per resource pool 1024
1.Additional 4 resource pools are used by system internals
Using Maximum Values for More than One Configuration Option
If any one of the configuration options listed in the above tables is used at its maximum limit value, the ESX host and vCenter Server with default configuration should be able to withstand the values.
If more than one configuration options (such as, number of virtual machines, number of LUNs, number of vDS ports etc.) are used at their maximum limit, some of the processes running on the host might run out of
memory. This might cause the host to keep disconnecting from the vCenter Server. In such a case, you need to increase the memory pool for these host processes so that the host can withstand the workload you are
planning. You need to increase your memory pool size in correlation to the number of configuration options you are using at the maximum value.
vCenter Server Maximums
Table7 contains configuration maximums related to vCenter Server.
Table7. vCenter Server Maximums
Item Maximum
vCenter Server Scalability
Hosts per vCenter Server1000
Powered on virtual machines per vCenter Server10000
Registered virtual machines per vCenter Server15000
Linked vCenter Servers10
Hosts in linked vCenter Servers3000
Powered on virtual machine in linked vCenter Servers30000
Registered virtual machine in linked vCenter Servers50000
Concurrent vSphere Clients 100
Number of host per datacenter400
Concurrent Operations
Concurrent provisioning operations per host4
Concurrent provisioning operations per datastore4
Concurrent vMotion operations per host (1Gb/s network)41
Concurrent vMotion operations per host (10Gb/s network)81
Concurrent vMotion operations per VMFS3 datastore128
Concurrent Storage vMotion operations per host2
Concurrent Storage vMotion operations per datastore8
1.Concurrent vMotion operation is currently supported only when source and destination
hosts are in the same cluster.
vCenter Server Extensions
The following tables contain configuration maximums related to vCenter Server extensions.
?“VMware vCenter Update Manager” on page7
?“VMware vCenter Orchestrator” on page7
?“VMware vCenter Converter” on page8
?“vSphere Storage Management Initiative ‐ Specification (SMI‐S)” on page8
Configuration Maximums
VMware vCenter Update Manager
Table8 contains configuration maximums for vCenter Update Manager.
Table8. vCenter Update Manager Maximums
Item Maximum
vCenter Update Manager Scalability
Host scans in a single vCenter Server1000
Virtual machine scans in a single vCenter Server10000
Cisco VDS update and deployment70
Concurrent Operations
Virtual machine remediation per ESX host5
Powered‐on Windows virtual machine scans per ESX host5
Powered‐off Windows virtual machine scans per ESX host5
Powered‐on Linux virtual machine scans per ESX host2
VMware Tools scan per ESX host24
VMware Tools upgrade per ESX host24
Virtual machine hardware scan per host24
Virtual machine hardware upgrade per host24
Virtual machine remediation per VUM server48
Powered‐on Windows virtual machine scan per VUM server17
Powered‐off Windows virtual machine scan per VUM server10
Powered‐on Linux virtual machine scan VUM server8
VMware Tools scan per VUM server75
VMware Tools upgrade per VUM server75
Virtual machine hardware scan per VUM server75
Virtual machine hardware upgrade per VUM server75
ESX host scan per VUM server70
ESX host remediation per VUM server8
ESX host upgrade per VUM server44
ESX host upgrade per cluster1
VMware vCenter Orchestrator
Table9 contains configuration maximums for vCenter Orchestrator.
Table9. vCenter Orchestrator Maximums
Item Maximum
Connected vCenter Server systems10
Connected ESX/ESXi instances100
Connected virtual machines150001
Concurrent running workflows150
1.Virtual machines spread across 10 vCenter Servers
Configuration Maximums
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VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304 https://www.wendangku.net/doc/a13158327.html,
Copyright ? 2010 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 https://www.wendangku.net/doc/a13158327.html,/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: EN-000385-01
VMware vCenter Converter
Table 10 contains configuration maximums for vCenter Converter.
vSphere Storage Management Initiative - Specification (SMI-S)
Table 11 contains configuration maximums for vSphere SMI ‐S.
Table 10. vCenter Converter Maximums
Item
Maximum Concurrent virtual machine to virtual machine import or export tasks
8Concurrent physical machine to virtual machine import or export tasks 20
Table 11. vSphere SMI-S Maximums
Item
Maximum Number of vCenter Server systems connected
1Number of ESX/ESXi hosts connected
1000Number of ESX/ESXi hosts managed by vCenter Server
320Number of virtual machines registered in vCenter Server 15000