Author Archives: fgrehl - Page 2

VMware vSphere 6.7 Configuration Maximums Changes

Posted by on April 30, 2018 1 comment

VMware vSphere 6.7 offers increased scalability. You can see a comparison against all previous versions at my ESX and vCenter Configuration Maximums page. Changes in VMware vSphere 6.7 are:

Virtual Machine Maximums

vSphere 6.7 vSphere 6.5 vSphere 6.0 
NVDIMM controllers 1 N/A N/A
Non-volatile Memory 1 TB N/A N/A
Virtual SCSI targets per virtual SCSI adapter 64 15 15
Virtual SCSI targets per Virtual Machine 256 64 64
Virtual RDMA Adapters per Virtual Machine 1 N/A N/A

ESXi Host Maximums

vSphere 6.7 vSphere 6.5 vSphere 6.0 
Maximum Non-volatile memory per host 1 TB N/A N/A
Logical CPUs per host 768 576 480
Maximum RAM per host 16 TB 12 TB 12 TB
Number of total paths on a server 4096 2048 1024
LUNs per server 1024 512 256
Volumes per host 1024 512 256

Fault Tolerance Maximums

vSphere 6.7 vSphere 6.5 vSphere 6.0 
Virtual CPUs per virtual machine 8 4 4
Virtual Memory per virtual machine 128 GB 64 GB 64 GB

 

vCenter Server Maximums

vSphere 6.7 vSphere 6.5 vSphere 6.0 
Hosts in linked vCenter Servers 5000 4000 4000
Powered on virtual machines in linked vCenter 50000 30000 30000
Registered virtual machines in linked vCenter 70000 50000 50000

Homelab - Will ESXi 6.7 run on Intel NUC?

Posted by on April 27, 2018 28 comments

esxi-on-5th-gen-NUC5i3MYHEVMware vSphere ESXi 6.7 is here and while you might want to wait before you upgrade your production, it's time to explore the new features in your Homelab. I've received a few questions on whether it is safe to upgrade.

Short answer
ESXi 6.7 will run on 5th, 6th and 6th Gen NUCs just as ESXi 6.5

Long answer...

Read more »

ESXi 6.7 - ESXCLI Command Mindmap

Posted by on April 27, 2018 4 comments

In vSphere 6.7 the command line interface esxcli has 62 new commands. Esxcli is a complete set of commands that you can use for troubleshooting, configuration or kickstart files. I have created and printed a mindmap to navigate through the namespaces more quickly. This post covers only basic namespaces, available on all ESXi 6.7 hosts. If you've installed additional software you might see more namespaces. I've also created mindmaps for ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, ESXi 6.0 and ESXi 6.5.

ESXCLI in version 6.7 has 15 namespaces: Read more »

VMware ESXi 3.5 - 6.7 Hypervisor Size Comparison

Posted by on April 23, 2018 1 comment

The VMware bare-metal hypervisor ESXi is in the market for over 10 years now. During that time it has been continuously refined and added with new features. Since vSphere 5.0, the hypervisor size is very constant and has not increased severely. In this post, I am going to have a look at how much the hypervisor footprint has been changed from ESXi 3.5 to ESXi 6.7.

  • ESXi 3.5 - 46,01 MB
  • ESXi 4.0 - 59,99 MB
  • ESXi 4.1 - 85,19 MB
  • ESXi 5.0 - 132,75 MB
  • ESXi 5.1 - 125,85 MB
  • ESXi 5.5 - 151,98 MB
  • ESXi 6.0 - 154,90 MB
  • ESXi 6.5 - 135,39 MB
  • ESXi 6.7 - 129,51 MB

Read more »

VMware ESXi 6.7 - ESXCLI Command Reference

Posted by on April 23, 2018 1 comment

ESXCLI is a powerful command line tool on an ESXi host. You may need it for troubleshooting, configuration or for automated ESXi installations by using a kickstart file. I'm having an esxcli command line reference on my desktop since vSphere 5.x and I am using it quite often. Here is the command line reference for the latest release of vSphere ESXi 6.7.

Download: esxi67-esxcli-command-reference.txt Read more »

New ESXCLI Commands in vSphere 6.7

Posted by on April 20, 2018 5 comments

esxcli-65In vSphere 6.7 the command line interface esxcli has been extended with new features. This post introduces the new and extended namespaces.

Quick Summary
62 new ESXCLI commands including:

  • 3 Device
  • 6 Hardware
  • 1 iSCSI
  • 14 Network
  • 14 NVMe
  • 2 RDMA
  • 9 Storage
  • 6 System
  • 7 vSAN

Read more »

VMware vSphere 6.7 introduces Skylake EVC Mode

Posted by on April 18, 2018 No comments

To simplify vMotion across CPU generations VMware has introduced Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC). EVC automatically configures server CPUs with Intel FlexMigration or AMD-V Extended Migration technologies to be compatible with older servers. In vSphere 6.7 a now EVC mode has been introduced.

Intel Skylake Generation
Compared to Intel "Broadwell " EVC mode, the Skylake EVC mode exposes additional CPU features:

  • Advanced Vector Extensions 512
  • Persistent Memory Support Instructions
  • Protection Key Rights
  • Save Processor Extended States with Compaction
  • Save Processor Extended States Supervisor

For more information about EVC Modes see Intel CPU EVC Matrix

VMware vSphere 6.7 Download Links Available

Posted by on April 17, 2018 2 comments

Today VMware made vSphere 6.7 bits available for everyone to download. VMware vSphere 6.7 is now GA.

VMware vSphere 6.7 Release Notes and Download Links

Development time
Since vSphere 6.0 VMware started to extend their major release cycles. With 518 days, the development time of vSphere 6.7 was 3 months shorter than the previous version but is still much longer than the release cycles in the vSphere 5 era. Let's hope for smooth upgrades in the next couple of weeks.

ESX Release Date Days since
prior release
6.7 2018-04-17 518
6.5 2016-11-15 614
6.0 2015-03-12 536
5.5 2013-09-22 376
5.1 2012-09-11 384
5.0 2011-08-24 407
4.1 2010-07-13 418
4.0 2009-05-21 456
3.5 2008-02-20 615
3.0 2006-06-15 563
2.5 2004-11-29 244
2.1 2004-03-30 253
2.0 2003-07-21 434
1.5 2002-05-13 416
1.0 2001-03-23

VMware ESX History Diagram

How to Install VMware vSphere Perl SDK on Debian 9 (stretch)

Posted by on February 7, 2018 1 comment

Download the latest Perl SDK for your vSphere version from code.vmware.com and copy it to the system. The download is free, but an My VMware account is required.

Make sure that your system up to date:

# apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

Read more »

Homeserver - ESXi on HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10

Posted by on November 2, 2017 27 comments

After Hewlett Packard Enterprise has missed offering a Microserver in their 9th Generation, it is now back in Gen10. The Microserver series provides affordable servers intended to be used in SMB and as home servers. Due to its low price and power consumption, you can find this system in many virtualization home labs as ESXi hosts or Storages.

The HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 is available with two different CPUs - AMD Opteron X3216 and X3421. Both models a SoC which means that the CPU cannot be changed like the Intel CPUs in Gen8. They support up to 32GB of unbuffered DDR RAM. The server can be equipped with 4 hard drive from the front.

  • HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10, Opteron X3216 (2x 1.6 - 3.0GHz / 15W TDP)
  • HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10, Opteron X3421 (4x 2.1 - 3.4GHz / 35W TDP)

Read more »