Here are the original PDF configuration maximums for vSphere 5.0, 5.1, 5.5 and now 6.0;
vSphere 5.x;
vSphere 6.x;
And if you’re only interested in the differences, these tables summarise them below;
Compute
Virtual Machine Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Virtual CPUs per virtual machine (Virtual SMP) | 32 | 64 | 64 | 128 |
Memory
Virtual Machine Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| RAM per virtual machine | 1TB | 1TB | 1TB | 4TB |
| Virtual machine swap file size | 1TB | 1TB | 1TB | 4TB |
Virtual Peripheral Ports
Virtual Machine Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Serial Ports per virtual machine | 4 | 4 | 4 | 32 |
Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices
Virtual Machine Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Virtual disk size | 2TB minus
512 bytes | 2TB minus
512 bytes | 62TB | 62TB |
| Virtual SATA adapters per virtual machine | - | - | 4 | 4 |
| Virtual SATA devices per virtual SATA adapter | - | - | 30 | 30 |
Graphics video device
Virtual Machine Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Video memory per virtual machine | 128MB | 512MB | 512MB | 512MB |
Host CPU maximums
ESXi Host Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Logical CPUs per host | 160 | 160 | 320 | 480 |
| NUMA Nodes per host | 8 | 8 | 16 | 16 |
Virtual machine maximums
ESXi Host Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Virtual machines per host | 512 | 512 | 512 | 1024 |
| Virtual CPUs per host | 2048 | 2048 | 4096 | 4096 |
| Virtual CPUs per core | 25 | 25 | 32 | 32 |
Fault Tolerance maximums
ESXi Host Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Virtual CPUs per virtual machine | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Virtual CPU per host | - | - | - | 8 |
Memory Maximums
ESXi Host Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| RAM per host | 2TB | 2TB | 4TB | 6TB / 12TB on specific
OEM certified platform |
Fibre Channel
ESXi Host Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| LUN ID | 255 | 255 | 255 | 1023 |
VMFS5
ESXi Host Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Raw Device Mapping size (virtual compatibility) | 2TB minus
512 bytes | 2TB minus
512 bytes | 62TB | 62TB |
| Raw Device Mapping size (physical compatibility) | 2TB minus
512 bytes | 2TB minus
512 bytes | 64TB | 64TB |
| File size | 2TB minus
512 bytes | 2TB minus
512 bytes | 62TB | 62TB |
Physical NICs
Networking Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| e1000 1Gb Ethernet ports (Intel PCI‐x) | 32 | 32 | - | - |
| tg3 1Gb Ethernet ports (Broadcom) | 32 | 32 | 32 | 16 (with NetQueue enabled)
32 (with NetQueue disabled) |
| bnx2 1Gb Ethernet ports (Qlogic) | - | - | - | 16 |
| forcedeth 1Gb Ethernet ports (NVIDIA) | 2 | 2 | - | - |
| elxnet 10Gb Ethernet Ports (Emulex) | - | - | - | 8 |
| ixgbe 10Gb Ethernet Ports (Intel) | - | - | 8 | 16 |
| bnx2x 10Gb Ethernet Ports (Qlogic) | - | - | - | 8 |
| Combination of 10Gb and 1Gb Ethernet ports | 6x 10Gb and
4x 1Gb ports | 6x 10Gb and
4x 1Gb ports | 8x 10Gb and 4x 1Gb ports | 16x 10Gb and 4x 1Gb ports |
VMDirectPath limits
Networking Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| SR-IOV number of virtual functions | - | - | 64 | 1024 |
| SR-IOV number of 10G pNICs | - | 4 | 8 | 8 |
vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch
Networking Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Maximum active ports per host (VDS and VSS) | 1016 | 1050 | 1016 | 1016 |
| Port groups per standard switch | 256 | 256 | 512 | 512 |
Static/Dynamic port groups per distributed
switch | - | - | 6500 | 10,000 |
| Distributed virtual network switch ports per vCenter | 30,000 | 60,000 | 60,000 | 60,000 |
| Static/dynamic port groups per vCenter | 5000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| Ephemeral port groups per vCenter | 256 | 256 | 1016 | 1016 |
| Distributed switches per vCenter | 32 | 128 | 128 | 128 |
| Distributed switches per host | - | - | 16 | 16 |
| VSS portgroups per host | - | - | 1000 | 1000 |
| LACP - LAGs per host | - | - | 64 | 64 |
| LACP - uplink ports per LAG (Team) | - | 4 | 32 | 32 |
| Hosts per VDS | 350 | 500 | 1000 | 1000 |
| NIOC resource pools per vDS | - | - | 64 | 64 |
| Link aggregation groups per vDS | - | 1 | 64 | 64 |
Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS)
Cluster and Resource Pool Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Hosts per cluster | 32 | 32 | 32 | 64 |
| Virtual machines per cluster | 3000 | 4000 | 4000 | 8000 |
| Virtual machines per host | 512 | 512 | 512 | 1024 |
| Powered‐on virtual machine config files per datastore in an HA cluster. | - | 2048 | 2048 | 2048 |
| FT virtual machines per cluster | - | - | - | 98 |
| FT virtual machines vCPU per Cluster | - | - | - | 256 |
Resource Pool
Cluster and Resource Pool Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Children per resource pool | 1024 | 1024 | 1024 | 1100 |
vCenter Server Scalability
vCenter Server Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Hosts in linked vCenter Servers | 3000 | 3000 | 3000 | 4000 |
| Concurrent vSphere Client connections to vCenter Server | 100 | 100 | 100 | - |
vCenter Server Appliance
vCenter Server Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Hosts (with embedded vPostgres database) | - | - | 100 | 1000 |
| Virtual machines (with embedded vPostgres database) | - | - | 3000 | 15,000 |
| Virtual machines (with Oracle database) | - | - | 10,000 | 15,000 |
vCenter Server Windows embedded/packaged vPostgres
vCenter Server Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Hosts (with embedded vPostgres database) | - | - | - | 20 |
| Virtual machines (with embedded vPostgres database) | - | - | - | 200 |
Content Library
vCenter Server Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Total CL items per VC (across all libraries) | - | - | - | 200 |
| Total number of libraries per VC | - | - | - | 20 |
| Total items per library | - | - | - | 200 |
| Maximum number of subscribers per library | - | - | - | 5 |
Host Profile
vCenter Server Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Hosts | - | - | - | 21 |
| Powered On virtual machines | - | - | - | 100 |
| Datastores | - | - | - | 120 |
| Profile Created | - | - | - | 1200 |
| Profile Attached | - | - | - | 1000 |
Single Sign On
vCenter Server Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Authentications per second (average) | - | 30 | - | - |
Domain/Replication
Platform Service Controller maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Maximum PSCs per vSphere Domain | - | - | - | 8 |
| Maximum PSCs per site, behind a load balancer | - | - | - | 4 |
Maximum objects within a vSphere Domain (Users and
Groups)
| - | - | - | 1,000,000 |
| Maximum tolerance for time skew between PSC nodes | - | - | - | 5 minutes |
Identity Source
Platform Service Controller maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Maximum Active Directory or OpenLDAP Groups per User for best performance | - | - | - | 1015 |
Enhanced Linked Mode/Lookup Service
Platform Service Controller maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Maximum number of VMware Solutions connected to a single PSC per User for best performance | - | - | - | 4 |
| Maximum number of VMware Solutions in a vSphere Domain | - | - | - | 10 |
VMCA/Certificate
Platform Service Controller maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
Maximum number of subordinate Certificate Authority
servers in the chain within VMware Certificate Authority | - | - | - | 6 |
| Maximum cryptographic hash used for PSC Node certificate Domain | - | - | - | 1 |
| Maximum RSA Public Key length used for PSC Node certificate | - | - | - | 16,384 |
VMware vCenter Update Manager
vCenter Update Manager Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| ESXi host upgrade per cluster | - | - | 1 | - |
VMware vCenter Orchestrator
vCenter Orchestrator Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Connected vCenter Server systems | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Connected ESXi instances | 100 | 1280 | 1280 | 1280 |
| Connected virtual machines | 15,000 | 35,000 | 35,000 | 35,000 |
| Concurrent running workflows | 150 | 300 | 300 | 300 |
Storage DRS
Storage DRS Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Datastores per datastore cluster | 32 | 32 | 32 | 64 |
Virtual SAN ESXi host
Virtual SAN Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Virtual SAN disk groups per host | - | - | - | 5 |
| Magnetic disks per disk group | - | - | - | 7 |
| SSD disks per disk group | - | - | - | 1 |
| Spinning disks in all diskgroups per host | - | - | - | 35 |
| Components per Virtual SAN host | - | - | - | 9000 |
| Cache tier maximum devices per host | - | - | - | 5 |
| Capacity tier maximum devices per diskgroup | - | - | - | 7 |
| Capacity tier maximum devices | - | - | - | 35 |
Virtual SAN Cluster
Virtual SAN Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Number of Virtual SAN hosts in a cluster | - | - | - | 64 |
| Number of datastores per cluster | - | - | - | 1 |
Virtual SAN virtual machines
Virtual SAN Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Virtual machines per host | - | - | - | 200 |
| Virtual machines per cluster | - | - | - | 6400 |
| Virtual machine virtual disk size | - | - | - | 62TB |
| Disk stripes per object | - | - | - | 12 |
| Percentage of flash read cache reservation | - | - | - | 100 |
| Failure to tolerate | - | - | - | 3 for VM virtual
disk size <= 16 TB
1 for VM virtual
disk size > 16 TB |
| Percentage of object space reservation | - | - | - | 100 |
| Virtual SAN networks/physical network fabrics | - | - | - | 2 |
Virtual Volumes
Virtual Volumes Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Data Virtual Volume Size | - | - | - | 62TB |
| Number of Virtual Volumes bound to a host | - | - | - | 64,000 |
| Number of PEs per host | - | - | - | 256 |
| Storage Container size | - | - | - | 2^64 |
| Storage Container per host | - | - | - | 256 |
| Maximum outstanding PE I/O operations | - | - | - | 128 configurable
up to 4096 |
| Configured VPs per host | - | - | - | 128 |
| Maximum configured VVol managed storage arrays per host | - | - | - | 64 |
Network I/O Control (NIOC)
Network I/O Control (NIOC) Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Number of resource pools | - | - | - | 10,000 |
| Number of uplinks per vds | - | - | - | 32 |
| Number of uplinks per host | - | - | - | 32 |
| Number of vNIC per host | - | - | - | 5120 |
| Max pNIC bandwidth | - | - | - | Approximately 10 Gbits/sec for 10G pNIC
Approximately 1 Gbits/sec for 1G pNIC |
vCloud Director Maximums
vCloud Director Maximums
| vSphere Configuration Item | v5.0 | v5.1 | v5.5 | v6.0 |
| Virtual machine count | 20000 | 30000 | 50000 | - |
| Powered‐On virtual machine count | 10000 | 10000 | 30000
| - |
| Virtual machines per vApp | 64 | 128 | 128 | - |
| vApps per organization | 500 | 3000 | 5000 | - |
| Number of networks | 7500 | 10000 | 10000 | - |
| Number of networks | 7500 | 7500 | 10000 | - |
| Hosts | 2000 | 2000 | 2000 | - |
| vCenter Servers | 25 | 25 | 20 | - |
| Catalogs | 1000 | 10000 | 10000 | - |
| Users | 10000 | 10000 | 25000 | - |
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Author: Jon Munday
An independent IT contractor with a strong focus on VMware virtualisation and infrastructure operations. I am inspired by technology, not afraid to question the status quo and balance my professional commitments with entertaining my three awesome kids (Ashton, Oliver and Lara).
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Updated post to include vSphere 6.0 configuration maximums.