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 | - |
36,848 total views, 3 views today
Related
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).
View all posts by Jon Munday
Please notify me when new posts updated in the site
Updated post to include vSphere 6.0 configuration maximums.