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6.5

VMware ESXi 3.5 - 6.5 Hypervisor Size Comparison

VMwares bare-metal hypervisor ESXi is in the market for almost 9 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 6.5.

  • 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-hypervisor-size-3-5-6-5

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New ESXCLI Commands in vSphere 6.5

esxcli-65In vSphere 6.5 the command line interface esxcli has been extended with new features. This post introduces the new and extended namespaces. Remarkable changes in esxcli version 6.5 are:

  • USB passthrough configuration
  • NVMe device status and configuration
  • VIB signature verification
  • Storage adapter capabilities
  • Device capacity information
  • VMFS6 reclaim configuration
  • vSAN iSCSI configuration
  • Physical nic coalesce queue configuration
  • WBEM configuration

 

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VMware ESXi 6.5 - Hardware not yet certified for upgrade

vmware-hcl-65Double check your vendor support when updating ESXi hosts from VMware vSphere 6.0 to 6.5. Some systems have not been certified by their vendor yet. The following servers were supported in vSphere 6.0 but are according to VMwares HCL not yet supported in vSphere 6.5.

Your server is listed and you want to upgrade?

  • Usually, the list gets smaller a couple of weeks after a new vSphere version has been released. I will update this post when I notice changes.
  • Not supported does not say that it does not work.
  • Servers get certified by their vendor, not VMware. If you want a server to get certified, ask your vendor.
  • Vendor support matrices sometimes differ from VMware HCL. Please ask your vendor or VMware whether you are allowed to upgrade.
  • The list has been created with the help of my HCL in JSON Format.
  • Follow the comments to get notified about updates.
  • Did I miss something? Please comment.

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Free ESXi 6.5 - How to Download and get License Keys

vSphere 6.5 has been released and as known from previous versions, VMware provides a free version of their Hypervisor ESXi for everyone again. The license key can be created for free at VMwares website. It has no expiration date. The binaries you will receive as "Free Hypervisor" are 100% identical to the paid version.

Limitations

  • No support
  • Free ESXi cannot be added to a vCenter Server
  • 2 physical CPUs
  • Unlimited cores per CPU
  • Unlimited physical Memory
  • max. 8 vCPU per VM

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VMware ESXi 6.5 - ESXCLI Command Reference

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 a 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 6.5.

Download: esxi65-esxcli-command-reference.txtRead More »VMware ESXi 6.5 - ESXCLI Command Reference

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 (vCSA) Enhancements

migrate2vcsavCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA) is the future. If you are still running the Windows-based vCenter, it's time to migrate to the appliance with vSphere 6.5.

Since vSphere 6.0, the appliance offers the same feature and scale as the windows based vCenter. vSphere 6.5 adds an X-Large deployment size, the update manager and a fully supported migration assistant to the appliance.Read More »VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 (vCSA) Enhancements