Hardware Needed for 2o Client Vmware System

Enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisor for deploying and serving virtual computers

VMware ESXi

Developer(s)	VMware, Inc.
Initial release	March 23, 2001; xx years ago  (2001-03-23)
Stable release	7.0 Update 3c (build 19193900)[ane] / January 27, 2022; 35 days ago  (2022-01-27)
Platform	IA-32 (x86-32) (discontinued in four.0 onwards),[two] x86-64, ARM[iii]
Blazon	Native hypervisor (blazon i)
License	Proprietary
Website	www.vmware.com/products/esxi-and-esx.html

VMware ESXi (formerly ESX) is an enterprise-grade, type-i hypervisor developed past VMware for deploying and serving virtual computers. Equally a type-1 hypervisor, ESXi is not a software awarding that is installed on an operating arrangement (OS); instead, information technology includes and integrates vital OS components, such equally a kernel.^[iv]

After version 4.1 (released in 2010), VMware renamed ESX to ESXi. ESXi replaces Service Console (a rudimentary operating system) with a more closely integrated OS. ESX/ESXi is the principal component in the VMware Infrastructure software suite.^[5]

The name ESX originated every bit an abridgement of Elastic Sky Ten.^{[6] [vii]} In September 2004, the replacement for ESX was internally called VMvisor , simply afterward inverse to ESXi (as the "i" in ESXi stood for "integrated").^{[8] [9]}

Architecture [edit]

ESX runs on bare metallic (without running an operating system)^[10] unlike other VMware products.^[11] It includes its ain kernel. In the historic VMware ESX, a Linux kernel was started first^[12] and so used to load a variety of specialized virtualization components, including ESX, which is otherwise known every bit the vmkernel component.^[thirteen] The Linux kernel was the primary virtual machine; it was invoked by the service console. At normal run-time, the vmkernel was running on the bare figurer, and the Linux-based service panel ran as the get-go virtual auto. VMware dropped development of ESX at version four.ane, and now uses ESXi, which does non include a Linux kernel at all.^[14]

The vmkernel is a microkernel^[15] with iii interfaces: hardware, invitee systems, and the service panel (Console OS).

Interface to hardware [edit]

The vmkernel handles CPU and memory straight, using scan-before-execution (SBE) to handle special or privileged CPU instructions^{[16] [17]} and the SRAT (system resource allocation table) to rail allocated retentiveness.^[eighteen]

Access to other hardware (such as network or storage devices) takes place using modules. At least some of the modules derive from modules used in the Linux kernel. To access these modules, an additional module called vmklinux implements the Linux module interface. According to the README file, "This module contains the Linux emulation layer used past the vmkernel."^[xix]

The vmkernel uses the device drivers:^[nineteen]

1. cyberspace/e100
2. internet/e1000
3. net/e1000e
4. net/bnx2
5. internet/tg3
6. net/forcedeth
7. net/pcnet32
8. block/cciss
9. scsi/adp94xx
10. scsi/aic7xxx
11. scsi/aic79xx
12. scsi/ips
13. scsi/lpfcdd-v732
14. scsi/megaraid2
15. scsi/mptscsi_2xx
16. scsi/qla2200-v7.07
17. scsi/megaraid_sas
18. scsi/qla4010
19. scsi/qla4022
20. scsi/vmkiscsi
21. scsi/aacraid_esx30
22. scsi/lpfcdd-v7xx
23. scsi/qla2200-v7xx

These drivers mostly equate to those described in VMware's hardware compatibility list.^[20] All these modules fall nether the GPL. Programmers have adapted them to run with the vmkernel: VMware Inc. has changed the module-loading and some other pocket-size things.^[19]

Service console [edit]

In ESX (and not ESXi), the Service Console is a vestigial full general purpose operating system most significantly used equally bootstrap for the VMware kernel, vmkernel, and secondarily used as a direction interface. Both of these Panel Operating System functions are being deprecated from version 5.0, as VMware migrates exclusively to the ESXi model.^[21] The Service Console, for all intents and purposes, is the operating system used to interact with VMware ESX and the virtual machines that run on the server.

Royal Screen of Death [edit]

A purple diagnostic screen every bit seen in VMware ESX Server 3.0

A purple diagnostic screen from VMware ESXi 4.ane

In the event of a hardware error, the vmkernel can catch a Car Check Exception.^[22] This results in an error message displayed on a majestic diagnostic screen. This is colloquially known equally a purple diagnostic screen, or imperial screen of death (PSoD, cf. blueish screen of expiry (BSoD)).

Upon displaying a royal diagnostic screen, the vmkernel writes debug information to the core dump partition. This information, together with the error codes displayed on the purple diagnostic screen can be used past VMware support to decide the cause of the trouble.

Versions [edit]

VMware ESX is available in 2 main types: ESX and ESXi, although since version 5 simply ESXi is connected.

ESX and ESXi before version 5.0 exercise not support Windows 8/Windows 2012. These Microsoft operating systems can but run on ESXi five.x or later.^[23]

VMware ESXi, a smaller-footprint version of ESX, does not include the ESX Service Console. It is available - without the need to purchase a vCenter license - as a costless download from VMware, with some features disabled.^{[24] [25] [26]}

ESXi stands for "ESX integrated".^[27]

VMware ESXi originated equally a compact version of VMware ESX that immune for a smaller 32 MB disk footprint on the host. With a simple configuration console for mostly network configuration and remote based VMware Infrastructure Client Interface, this allows for more resources to be dedicated to the guest environments.

Two variations of ESXi exist:

• VMware ESXi Installable
• VMware ESXi Embedded Edition

The aforementioned media can be used to install either of these variations depending on the size of the target media.^[28] 1 can upgrade ESXi to VMware Infrastructure three^[29] or to VMware vSphere 4.0 ESXi.

Originally named VMware ESX Server ESXi edition, through several revisions the ESXi production finally became VMware ESXi 3. New editions then followed: ESXi 3.5, ESXi 4, ESXi v and (every bit of 2015^[update]) ESXi 6.

GPL violation lawsuit [edit]

VMware has been sued past Christoph Hellwig, a Linux kernel developer. The lawsuit began on March 5, 2015. It was alleged that VMware had misappropriated portions of the Linux kernel,^{[30] [31]} and, post-obit a dismissal by the court in 2016, Hellwig announced he would file an entreatment.^[32]

The appeal was decided February 2019 and again dismissed by the High german court, on the basis of not meeting "procedural requirements for the burden of proof of the plaintiff".^[33]

In the final phase of the lawsuit in March 2019, the Hamburg Higher Regional Courtroom likewise rejected the claim on procedural grounds. Post-obit this, VMware officially appear that they would remove the code in question.^[34] This followed with Hellwig withdrawing his instance, and withholding further legal action.^[35]

[edit]

The post-obit products operate in conjunction with ESX:

• vCenter Server, enables monitoring and direction of multiple ESX, ESXi and GSX servers. In addition, users must install it to run infrastructure services such as:
  • vMotion (transferring virtual machines between servers on the fly whilst they are running, with nada downtime)^{[36] [37]}
  • svMotion aka Storage vMotion (transferring virtual machines betwixt Shared Storage LUNs on the wing, with cipher reanimation)^[38]
  • Enhanced vMotion aka evMotion (a simultaneous vMotion and svMotion, supported on version five.1 and to a higher place)
  • Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) (automated vMotion based on host/VM load requirements/demands)
  • High Availability (HA) (restarting of Virtual Car Guest Operating Systems in the event of a physical ESX host failure)
  • Error Tolerance (FT) (almost instant stateful fail-over of a VM in the event of a physical host failure)^[39]
• Converter, enables users to create VMware ESX Server- or Workstation-uniform virtual machines from either physical machines or from virtual machines made by other virtualization products. Converter replaces the VMware "P2V Assistant" and "Importer" products — P2V Assistant allowed users to convert physical machines into virtual machines, and Importer allowed the import of virtual machines from other products into VMware Workstation.
• vSphere Client (formerly VMware Infrastructure Client), enables monitoring and direction of a single instance of ESX or ESXi server. After ESX 4.1, vSphere Client was no longer available from the ESX/ESXi server but must exist downloaded from the VMware web site.

Cisco Nexus 1000v [edit]

Network-connectivity betwixt ESX hosts and the VMs running on it relies on virtual NICs (inside the VM) and virtual switches. The latter exists in 2 versions: the 'standard' vSwitch allowing several VMs on a single ESX host to share a physical NIC and the 'distributed vSwitch' where the vSwitches on different ESX hosts together class one logical switch. Cisco offers in their Cisco Nexus product-line the Nexus 1000v, an advanced version of the standard distributed vSwitch. A Nexus 1000v consists of two parts: a supervisor module (VSM) and on each ESX host a virtual ethernet module (VEM). The VSM runs every bit a virtual appliance within the ESX cluster or on dedicated hardware (Nexus 1010 series) and the VEM runs every bit a module on each host and replaces a standard dvS (distributed virtual switch) from VMware.

Configuration of the switch is done on the VSM using the standard NX-OS CLI. It offers capabilities to create standard port-profiles which can then be assigned to virtual machines using vCenter.

In that location are several differences between the standard dvS and the N1000v; one is that the Cisco switch generally has full support for network technologies such as LACP link aggregation or that the VMware switch supports new features such as routing based on physical NIC load. However, the main divergence lies in the architecture: Nexus 1000v is working in the same way as a physical Ethernet switch does while dvS is relying on data from ESX. This has consequences for case in scalability where the Kappa limit for a N1000v is 2048 virtual ports confronting 60000 for a dvS.

The Nexus1000v is adult in co-operation between Cisco and VMware and uses the API of the dvS.^[xl]

Third-party direction tools [edit]

Considering VMware ESX is a leader in the server-virtualization market,^[41] software and hardware vendors offer a range of tools to integrate their products or services with ESX. Examples are the products from Veeam Software with fill-in and direction applications^[42] and a plugin to monitor and manage ESX using HP OpenView,^[43] Quest Software with a range of management and backup-applications and about major backup-solution providers have plugins or modules for ESX. Using Microsoft Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007/2012 with a Bridgeways ESX management pack gives the user a realtime ESX datacenter health view.

Also, hardware-vendors such equally Hewlett-Packard and Dell include tools to support the employ of ESX(i) on their hardware platforms. An example is the ESX module for Dell'southward OpenManage management platform.^[44]

VMware has added a Web Client^[45] since v5 but it will work on vCenter only and does non incorporate all features.^[46] vEMan^[47] is a Linux awarding which is trying to fill that gap. These are just a few examples: there are numerous 3rd party products to manage, monitor or fill-in ESX infrastructures and the VMs running on them.^[48]

Known limitations [edit]

Known limitations of VMware ESXi 7.0 U1, as of September 2020, include the following:

Infrastructure limitations [edit]

Some maximums in ESXi Server seven.0 may influence the design of data centers:^{[49] [l]}

• Guest system maximum RAM: 24 TB
• Host system maximum RAM: 24 TB
• Number of hosts in a high availability or Distributed Resources Scheduler cluster: 96
• Maximum number of processors per virtual machine: 768
• Maximum number of processors per host: 768
• Maximum number of virtual CPUs per physical CPU core: 32
• Maximum number of virtual machines per host: 1024
• Maximum number of virtual CPUs per fault tolerant virtual machine: viii
• Maximum guest organization RAM per mistake tolerant virtual machine: 128 GB
• VMFS5 maximum book size: 64 TB, simply maximum file size is 62 TB -512 bytes
• Maximum Video retentivity per virtual auto: iv GB

Performance limitations [edit]

In terms of functioning, virtualization imposes a cost in the boosted work the CPU has to perform to virtualize the underlying hardware. Instructions that perform this extra work, and other activities that require virtualization, tend to lie in operating system calls. In an unmodified operating system, OS calls introduce the greatest portion of virtualization "overhead".^{[ citation needed ]}

Paravirtualization or other virtualization techniques may assistance with these bug. VMware developed the Virtual Motorcar Interface for this purpose, and selected operating systems currently^[update] back up this. A comparing betwixt full virtualization and paravirtualization for the ESX Server^[51] shows that in some cases paravirtualization is much faster.

Network limitations [edit]

When using the avant-garde and extended network capabilities past using the Cisco Nexus 1000v distributed virtual switch the post-obit network-related limitations apply:^[forty]

• 64 ESX/ESXi hosts per VSM (Virtual Supervisor Module)
• 2048 virtual ethernet interfaces per VMware vDS (virtual distributed switch)

• and a maximum of 216 virtual interfaces per ESX/ESXi host

• 2048 agile VLANs (one to be used for communication betwixt VEMs and VSM)
• 2048 port-profiles
• 32 physical NICs per ESX/ESXi (physical) host
• 256 port-channels per VMware vDS (virtual distributed switch)

• and a maximum of 8 port-channels per ESX/ESXi host

Fibre Channel Fabric limitations [edit]

Regardless of the type of virtual SCSI adapter used, there are these limitations:^[52]

• Maximum of 4 Virtual SCSI adapters, one of which should be dedicated to virtual deejay utilise
• Maximum of 64 SCSI LUNs per adapter

See also [edit]

• Comparison of platform virtualization software
• KVM Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine – an open-source hypervisor platform
• Hyper-V – a competitor of VMware ESX from Microsoft
• Xen – an open up-source hypervisor platform
• Virtual appliance
• Virtual machine
• Virtual disk image
• VMware VMFS
• x86 virtualization
• Compatible motherboards

References [edit]

1. ^ "VMware ESXi 7.0 Update 3c Release Notes".
2. ^ "VMware ESX four.0 only installs and runs on servers with 64bit x86 CPUs. 32bit systems are no longer supported". VMware, Inc.
3. ^ "Announcing the ESXi-ARM Fling". VMware, Inc.
4. ^ "ESX Server Architecture". VMware. Archived from the original on seven November 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
5. ^ VMware:vSphere ESX and ESXi Info Middle
6. ^ "What does ESX stand for?". Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
7. ^ "Glossary" (PDF). Developer's Guide to Edifice vApps and Virtual Appliances: VMware Studio 2.5. Palo Alto: VMware. 2011. p. 153. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
8. ^ "Did you know VMware Elastic Heaven X (ESX) was one time called 'Scaleable Server'?". UP2V. 12 May 2014. Archived from the original on 10 June 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
9. ^ "VMware ESXi was created by a French guy !!! | ESX Virtualization". ESX Virtualization. 26 September 2009. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
10. ^ "ESX Server Datasheet"
11. ^ "ESX Server Architecture". Vmware.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved one July 2009.
12. ^ "ESX machine boots". Video.google.com.au. 12 June 2006. Archived from the original on xiii Dec 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
13. ^ "VMKernel Scheduler". vmware.com. 27 May 2008. Retrieved x March 2016.
14. ^ Mike, Foley. "It'southward a Unix arrangement, I know this!". VMware Blogs. VMware.
15. ^ "Support for 64-bit Computing". Vmware.com. 19 April 2004. Archived from the original on 2 July 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
16. ^ Gerstel, Markus: "Virtualisierungsansätze mit Schwerpunkt Xen" Archived 10 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
17. ^ VMware ESX
18. ^ "VMware ESX Server 2: NUMA Support" (PDF). Palo Alto, California: VMware Inc. 2005. p. vii. Retrieved 29 March 2011. SRAT (system resources allocation table) – tabular array that keeps track of memory allocated to a virtual automobile.
19. ^ ^{a b c} "ESX Server Open Source". Vmware.com. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
20. ^ "ESX Hardware Compatibility List". Vmware.com. 10 Dec 2008. Retrieved ane July 2009.
21. ^ "ESXi vs. ESX: A comparing of features". Vmware, Inc. Retrieved ane June 2009.
22. ^ "KB: Decoding Motorcar Check Exception (MCE) output after a purple diagnostic screen |publisher=VMware, Inc."
23. ^ VMware KBArticle Windows 8/Windows 2012 doesn't boot on ESX, visited 12 September 2012
24. ^ "Download VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi)". www.vmware.com . Retrieved 22 July 2014.
25. ^ "Getting Started with ESXi Installable" (PDF). VMware . Retrieved 22 July 2014.
26. ^ "VMware ESX and ESXi 4.1 Comparison". Vmware.com. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
27. ^ "What do ESX and ESXi stand for?". VM.Blog. 31 August 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2016. Evidently, the 'i' in ESXi stands for Integrated, probably coming from the fact that this version of ESX can exist embedded in a small bit of flash memory on the server hardware.
28. ^ Andreas Peetz. "ESXi embedded vs. ESXi installable FAQ". Retrieved 11 August 2014.
29. ^ "Free VMware ESXi: Bare Metal Hypervisor with Live Migration". VMware. Retrieved i July 2009.
30. ^ "Conservancy Announces Funding for GPL Compliance Lawsuit". sfconservancy.org. v March 2015. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
31. ^ "Copyleft Compliance Projects - Software Liberty Salvation". Sfconservancy.org. 25 May 2018. Retrieved vii February 2020.
32. ^ "Hellwig To Appeal VMware Ruling After Evidentiary Set up Back in Lower Court". 9 August 2016.
33. ^ "Klage von Hellwig gegen VMware erneut abgewiesen". 1 March 2019.
34. ^ "VMware's Update to Mr. Hellwig's Legal Proceedings". Vmware.com. Retrieved seven February 2020.
35. ^ "Printing release" (PDF). bombadil.infradead.org. 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
36. ^ VMware Blog by Kyle Gleed: vMotion: what's going on under the covers, 25 Feb 2011, visited: two February 2012
37. ^ VMware website vMotion brochure . Retrieved 3 February 2012
38. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.vmware.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 December 2009. Retrieved 17 January 2022. {{cite spider web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
39. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.vmware.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 Nov 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2022. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
40. ^ ^{a b} Overview of the Nexus 1000v virtual switch, visited nine July 2012
41. ^ VMware continues virtualization market romp, eighteen April 2012. Visited: ix July 2012
42. ^ Most Veeam, visited 9 July 2012
43. ^ Veeam OpenView plugin for VMware, visited 9 July 2012
44. ^ OpenManage (omsa) support for ESXi v.0, visited 9 July 2012
45. ^ VMware info nigh Spider web Client – VMware ESXi/ESX 4.ane and ESXi v.0 Comparing
46. ^ Availability of vSphere Client for Linux systems – What the spider web customer tin can practice and what not
47. ^ vEMan website vEMan – Linux vSphere customer
48. ^ Petri website 3rd party ESX tools, 23 December 2008. Visited: 11 September 2001
49. ^ https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/09/whats-new-with-vmware-vsphere-7u1.html
50. ^ "VMware Configuration Maximum tool".
51. ^ "Operation of VMware VMI" (PDF). VMware, Inc. xiii February 2008. Retrieved 22 Jan 2009.
52. ^ "vSphere 6.7 Configuration Maximums". VMware Configuration Maximum Tool. VMware. Retrieved 12 July 2019.

External links [edit]

• VMware ESX product page
• ESXi Release and Build Number History
• VMware ESXI Paradigm For HPE Servers