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VMware vSphere Version Comparison

The following table is a comprehensive collection of feature enhancements in VMwares vSphere Suite.

vSphere
4.0
vSphere
4.1
vSphere
5.0
vSphere
5.1
vSphere
5.5
vSphere
6.0
vSphere
6.5
vSphere
6.7
vSphere
7.0
vSphere
8.0
Released
05/2009
07/2010
08/2011
09/2012
09/2013
03/2015
11/2016
04/2018
04/2020
10/2022
End of Support
05/2014
05/2014
08/2016
08/2016
09/2018
03/2020
10/2022
10/2022
04/2025
10/2027
End of Technical Guidance
05/2016
05/2016
08/2018
08/2018
09/2020
03/2022
11/2023
11/2023
04/2027
10/2029
Hypervisor
ESX & ESXi
ESX & ESXi
ESXi
ESXi
ESXi
ESXi
ESXi
ESXi
ESXi
ESXi
CPUs per host
64
160
160
160
320
480
576
768
768
896
RAM per host
1 TB
1 TB
2 TB
2 TB
4 TB
12 TB
12 TB
16 TB
16 TB
24 TB
vCPU per VM
8
8
32
64
64
128
128
128
128
768
vMEM per VM
255 GB
255 GB
1 TB
1 TB
1 TB
4 TB
6 TB
6 TB
6 TB
24 TB
VMDK Size
2 TB
2 TB
2 TB
2 TB
62 TB
62 TB
62 TB
62 TB
62 TB
62 TB
Cluster Size
32
32
32
32
32
64
64
64
64
64
FT Limit
1 vCPU
64 GB
1 vCPU
64 GB
1 vCPU
64 GB
1 vCPU
64 GB
1 vCPU
64 GB
4 vCPU
64 GB
4 vCPU
64 GB
8 vCPU
128 GB
8 vCPU
128 GB
8 vCPU
128 GB
VM Hardware Version
7
7
8
9
10
11
13
14+15
17+18+19
20
VMFS Version
3.33
3.46
5.54
5.58
5.60
5.61
5.81 (VMFS5)
6.81 (VMFS6)
5.81 (VMFS5)
6.82 (VMFS6)
5.81 (VMFS5)
6.82 (VMFS6)
5.81 (VMFS5)
6.82 (VMFS6)
New Features
  • Distributed Switch
  • Update Manager
  • Fault tolerance
  • Host Profiles
  • Storage vMotion
  • Linked Mode
  • Enhanced vMotion Compatibility
  • Distributed Power Management
  • Hot Add VM CPU/Memory
  • VMDirectPath
  • VMXNET3
  • Boot from SAN
  • Scripted Installation
  • Storage I/O Control
  • DRS Host Affinity
  • Memory Compression
  • Array Integration
  • Network I/O Control
  • Auto Deploy
  • Storage DRS
  • vSphere Storage Appliance
  • Profile driven storage
  • vSphere Web Client
  • vCenter Server Appliance
  • ESXi Firewall
  • Virtual NUMA
  • Single Sign-On
  • Enhanced vMotion
  • Sparse Virtual Disks
  • Single-root I/O Virtualization
  • vSphere Replication
  • vSphere Data Protection
  • vShield Endpoint
  • vSphere Flash Read Cache
  • Virtual SAN
  • Reliable Memory Technology
  • vSphere Big Data Extensions
  • vCenter Single Sign-On 2.0
  • vSphere App HA
  • 40GBps NIC Support
  • Virtual Volumes
  • vMotion across vSwitches
  • Cross vCenter vMotion
  • Native Linked Mode
  • Platform Services Controller
  • Certificate Authority (VMCA)
  • Content Library
  • vCenter Migration
  • vCenter Server High Availability
  • vCenter Backup and Restore
  • REST API
  • Virtual Machine Encryption
  • Encrypted vMotion
  • Audit Logging
  • Proactive HA
  • HA Orchestrated Restart
  • Automated UNMAP
  • vSphere Integrated Containers
  • Single Reboot Upgrade
  • Instant Clone
  • ESXi Quick Boot
  • Persistent Memory Devices
  • vCenter Appliance Backup
  • 4k Native Storage
  • TPM 2.0
  • vTPM 2.0
  • Per-VM EVC
  • vGPU Migration
  • Tanzu
  • Trust Authority
  • Identity federation with ADFS
  • Lifecycle Manager
  • vCenter Server Profiles
  • Improved DRS
  • vMotion Logic Optimizations
  • vMotion with Reduced Stun Time
  • vMotion with Reduced Performance Impact
  • Distributed Services Engine
  • Device groups
  • Device Virtualization Extensions (DVX)
  • Configuration Profiles
  • Parallel ESXi remediation
  • vCenter Recovery
  • Migration-aware applications
  • vSAN Express Storage Architecture
  • Workload Availability zones
  • Management
    C# Client
    C# Client
    C# Client
    Web Client
    Web Client
    C# Client
    Web Client
    C# Client
    Web Client
    C# Client
    Web Client
    HTML Client
    Web Client
    HTML Client
    HTML5 Client
    HTML5 Client
    Authentication Management
    N/A
    N/A
    N/A
    Single Sign-On
    Single Sign-On 5.5
    Platform Services Controller
    Platform Services Controller
    Platform Services Controller
    Platform Services Controller
    Platform Services Controller
    Backup Strategy
    VMware Data Recovery (VDR)
    vSphere Data Protection (VDP)
    N/A
    N/A
    N/A
    vMotion Support
  • Boundary: Datacenter
  • Shared Storage required
  • max. 5ms RTT
  • Boundary: Datacenter
  • Shared Storage required
  • max. 10ms RTT
  • Boundary: Datacenter
  • max. 10ms RTT
  • vMotion across vCenters
  • vMotion across vSwitches
  • max. 100ms RTT
  • vMotion across vCenters
  • vMotion across vSwitches
  • max. 150ms RTT
  • Virtual SAN
    N/A
    N/A
    N/A
    VSAN 5.5
    VSAN 6.0
    VSAN 6.2
    VSAN 6.5
    VSAN 6.6
    vSAN 6.7
    vSAN 7.0
    vSAN 8.0
    HA Agent
    AAM
    Automatic Availability Manager
    FDM
    Fault Domain Manager
    vCenter Type
    Windows
    Windows
    Windows
    Linux
    Windows
    Linux
    Windows
    Linux
    Windows
    Linux
    Windows
    Linux
    Linux
    Windows
    Linux
    Linux
    vCSA Scale (vPostgres)
    -
    -
    5 Hosts
    50 VMs
    5 Hosts
    50 VMs
    100 Hosts
    3000 VMs
    1000 Hosts
    10000 VMs
    2000 Hosts
    25000 VMs
    2000 Hosts
    35000 VMs
    2500 Hosts
    40000 VMs
    2500 Hosts
    40000 VMs
    vSphere
    4.0
    vSphere
    4.1
    vSphere
    5.0
    vSphere
    5.1
    vSphere
    5.5
    vSphere
    6.0
    vSphere
    6.5
    vSphere
    6.7
    vSphere
    7.0
    vSphere
    8.0

    21 thoughts on “VMware vSphere Version Comparison”

    1. How about adding this please.

      Virtual NUMA topology is available to hardware version 8 virtual machines and is enabled by default when the number of virtual CPUs is greater than eight.

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