| 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 | |
| Released | 05/2009 | 07/2010 | 08/2011 | 09/2012 | 09/2013 | 03/2015 | 11/2016 | 04/2018 | 04/2020 |
| Hypervisor | ESX & ESXi | ESX & ESXi | ESXi | ESXi | ESXi | ESXi | ESXi | ESXi | ESXi |
| CPUs per host | 64 | 160 | 160 | 160 | 320 | 480 | 576 | 768 | 768 |
| RAM per host | 1 TB | 1 TB | 2 TB | 2 TB | 4 TB | 12 TB | 12 TB | 16 TB | 16 TB |
| vCPU per VM | 8 | 8 | 32 | 64 | 64 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 128 |
| vMEM per VM | 255 GB | 255 GB | 1 TB | 1 TB | 1 TB | 4 TB | 6 TB | 6 TB | 6 TB |
| VMDK Size | 2TB | 2TB | 2TB | 2TB | 62 TB | 62 TB | 62 TB | 62 TB | 62 TB |
| Cluster Size | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 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 |
| VM Hardware Version | 7 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 14+15 | 17 |
| 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) |
| 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 | - 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 | - Tanzu - Trust Authority - Lifecycle Manager - Improved DRS |
| Management | C# Client | C# Client | C# Client Web Client | C# Client Web Client | C# Client Web Client | C# Client Web Client | Web Client HTML5 Client | HTML5 Client Web Client | HTML5 Client |
| Authentication Management | - | - | - | Single Sign-On | Single Sign-On 5.5 | 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 | |||||
| vMotion Support | - Boundary: Datacenter - Shared Storage required - max. 5ms RTT | - Boundary: Datacenter - Shared Storage required - max. 10ms RTT | - Boundary: Datacenter - max. 10ms RTT | - Boundary: Datacenter - max. 10ms RTT | - vMotion across vCenters - vMotion across vSwitches - max. 100ms RTT | - max. 150ms RTT - Per-VM EVC - vGPU Migration | - Logic Optimizations - Reduced Stun Time - Reduced Performance Impact | ||
| Virtual SAN | - | - | - | - | VSAN 5.5 | VSAN 6.0 VSAN 6.2 | VSAN 6.5 VSAN 6.6 | vSAN 6.7 | vSAN 7.0 |
| HA Agent | AAM Automatic Availability Manager | FDM Fault Domain Manager | |||||||
| VAAI Primitives | - | - Atomic Test & Set - Cloning Blocks - Zeroing File Blocks | - Atomic Test & Set - Cloning Blocks - Zeroing File Blocks - UNMAP - Quota Exceeded Behavior - TP LUN Reporting - NFS Full File Clone - NFS Space Reservation - NFS Extended Stat - NFS Space Reclaim - NFS Fast File Clone | ||||||
| vCenter Type | Windows | Windows | Windows Linux | Windows Linux | Windows Linux | Windows Linux | Windows Linux | Linux Windows | 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 |
Thanks for the comparison
thanks for the info. Your contribution is much appreciated.
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.
Your contribution is much appreciated.
Thank you.
really good information
thanks
Thanks for the such information.
Wow, great chart. Thanks for the work on that!
Thanks.
Very useful info, thanks for sharing. Keep up the good job
Thanks
Thank you so much
Will the vSphere 6.7 column be added soon? :)
Thanks.
Thanks
Nice info
Wow perfect analogy Thanks
Wonderful information!!
Many thanks for your nice efforts