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VMware ESX Server 2.1
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 Server Hardware Requirements

Server Hardware Requirements

For information on supported hardware, download the VMware ESX Server Hardware Compatibility Guide from the VMware Web site at www.vmware.com/support/.

Minimum Server Requirements

Minimum Server Requirements

You need the following hardware and system resources to install and use ESX Server.

  • At least two, and up to sixteen, processors:
    • Intel® 700MHz Pentium® III Xeon and above, or AMD Opteron (32-bit mode) for ESX Server
    • Intel® 900MHz Pentium® III Xeon and above, or AMD Opteron (32-bit mode) for Virtual SMP
  • 512MB RAM minimum
  • Two or more Ethernet controllers. Supported controllers include:
    • Broadcom® NetXtreme 570x Gigabit controllers
    • Intel PRO/100 adapters
    • Intel PRO/1000 adapters
    • 3Com® 9xx based adapters

      Note: For best performance and security, use separate Ethernet controllers for the service console and the virtual machines.

  • A SCSI adapter, Fibre Channel adapter or internal RAID controller.

    The basic SCSI adapters supported are Adaptec®, LSI Logic and most NCR/Symbios SCSI adapters. The RAID adapters supported are HP® Smart Array, Dell® PercRAID (Adaptec RAID and LSI MegaRAID), ServeRAID and Mylex® RAID devices. The Fibre Channel adapters that are supported are Emulex and QLogic adapters.

    The supported SCSI controllers are Adaptec® Ultra-160 and Ultra-320, LSI Logic Fusion-MPT and most NCR/Symbios SCSI controllers. The supported RAID controllers are HP® Smart Array, Dell® PercRAID (Adaptec RAID and LSI MegaRAID), IBM® (Adaptec) ServeRAID and Mylex RAID controllers. The supported Fibre Channel adapters are Emulex and QLogic host-bus adapters (HBAs).

  • A SCSI disk, Fibre Channel LUN or RAID LUN with unpartitioned space. In a minimum configuration, this disk or RAID is shared between the service console and the virtual machines.
Recommended for Enhanced Performance

Recommended for Enhanced Performance

  • A second disk controller with one or more drives, dedicated to the virtual machines
  • Sufficient RAM for each virtual machine and the service console
  • Dedicated Ethernet cards for network-sensitive virtual machines

The lists above outline a basic configuration. In practice, you may use multiple physical disks, which may be SCSI disks, Fibre Channel LUNs or RAID LUNs. For best performance, all of the data used by the virtual machines should be on the physical disks allocated to virtual machines. Therefore, these physical disks should be large enough to hold disk images that will be used by all the virtual machines.

Similarly, you should provide enough RAM for all of the virtual machines plus the service console. For background on the service console and how to calculate the amount of RAM you need, refer to the VMware ESX Server Administration Guide.

Note: To ensure the best possible I/O performance and workload management, VMware ESX Server provides its own drivers for supported devices. Be sure that the devices you plan to use in your server are supported. For additional detail on I/O device compatibility, download the VMware ESX Server I/O Adapter Compatibility Guide from the VMware Web site at www.vmware.com/support/.

ESX Server virtual machines can share a SCSI disk with the service console, but for enhanced disk performance, you can configure the virtual machines to use a SCSI adapter and disk separate from those used by the service console. You should make sure enough free disk space is available to install the guest operating system and applications for each virtual machine on the disk that they will use.

Maximum Physical Machine Specifications

Maximum Physical Machine Specifications

Storage

Storage

  • 16 host bus adapters per ESX Server system
  • 128 logical unit numbers (LUNs) per storage array
  • 128 LUNs per ESX Server system
VMware File System (VMFS)

VMware File System (VMFS)

  • 128 VMFS volumes per ESX Server system
  • Maximum physical extents per VMFS volume
    • VMFS-2 volumes: 32 physical extents
    • VMFS-1 volumes: 1 physical extent
  • 2TB per physical extent
  • Maximum size per VMFS volume
    • VMFS-2 volumes: approximately 64TB, with a maximum of 2TB per each physical extent
    • VMFS-1 volumes: approximately 2TB
CPU

CPU

  • 16 physical processors per system
  • 80 virtual CPUs in all virtual machines per ESX Server system
Memory

Memory

  • 64GB of RAM per ESX Server system
  • Up to 8 swap files, with a maximum file size of 64GB per swap file
Adapters

Adapters

  • 64 adapters of all types, including storage and network adapters, per system
  • Up to 8 Gigabit Ethernet or 16 10/100 Ethernet ports per system
  • Up to 32 virtual machines per virtual network device (vmnic or vmnet adapter)
Remote Management Workstation Requirements

Remote Management Workstation Requirements

The remote workstation is a Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Linux system from which you launch the ESX Server management tools. As an ESX Server administrator, you have two tools to help you set up and maintain an ESX Server system:

  • The VMware Management Interface — a graphical interface that uses a Web browser.
  • The VMware Remote Console — a stand-alone application that uses a command-line interface.
Hardware Requirements

Hardware Requirements

  • Standard x86-based computer
  • 266MHz or faster processor
  • 64MB RAM minimum
  • 10MB free disk space required for basic installation
Software for a Windows Remote Workstation

Software for a Windows Remote Workstation

  • Windows XP Professional
  • Windows 2000 Professional, Server or Advanced Server
  • Windows NT 4.0 Workstation or Server, Service Pack 6a
  • The VMware Management Interface is designed for these browsers:
    • Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6.0 (6.0 highly recommended for better performance)
    • Netscape Navigator® 7.0
    • Mozilla 1.x
Software for a Linux Remote Workstation

Software for a Linux Remote Workstation

The remote workstation is compatible with standard Linux distributions with glibc version 2 or higher and one of the following:

  • For single-processor systems: kernel 2.0.32 or higher in the 2.0.x series, kernel in the 2.2.x series or kernel in the 2.4.x series
  • For multiprocessor systems: kernel in the 2.2.x series or kernel in the 2.4.x series
  • The VMware Management Interface is designed for these browsers:
    • Netscape Navigator 7.0
    • Mozilla 1.x
Supported Guest Operating Systems

Supported Guest Operating Systems

The following table lists the supported guest operating systems in ESX Server 2.1. Support for VMware Virtual SMP is marked SMP-capable for dual virtual CPU configurations.

 Guest Operating System
 SMP-Capable
 Windows Server 2003 (Enterprise, Standard and Web Editions)
 Yes
 Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 1)
 No
 Windows 2000 Server (Service Pack 3 or 4)
 Yes
 Windows 2000 Advanced Server (Service Pack 3 or 4)
 Yes
 Windows NT 4.0 — Service Pack 6a
 No
 Red Hat Linux 7.2, 7.3 and 8.0
 No
 Red Hat Linux 9.0
 No
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (AS) 2.1 and 3.0
 Yes
 SuSE Linux 8.2 and 9.0
 No
 SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 8
 Yes
 Novell NetWare 6.5, 6.0 (Support Pack 3) and 5.1 (Support Pack 6)
 No

Virtual Machine Specifications

Virtual Machine Specifications

Each ESX Server machine can host up to 80 virtual CPUs in virtual machines (and up to 200 registered virtual machines) on a single ESX Server, with the following capabilities and specifications.

Virtual Storage

Virtual Storage

  • 4 host bus adapters per virtual machine
  • 15 targets per host bus adapter
  • 60 targets per virtual machine; 256 targets concurrently in all virtual machines
Virtual Processor

Virtual Processor

  • Intel Pentium II or later (dependent on system processor)
  • One or two processors per virtual machine

    Note: If you plan to create a dual-virtual CPU virtual machine, then your ESX Server machine must have at least two physical processors and you must have purchased the VMware Virtual SMP for ESX Server product.

Virtual Chip Set

Virtual Chip Set

  • Intel 440BX-based motherboard with NS338 SIO chip
Virtual BIOS

Virtual BIOS

  • PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6
Virtual Memory

Virtual Memory

  • Up to 3.6GB per virtual machine
Virtual SCSI Devices

Virtual SCSI Devices

  • Up to 4 virtual SCSI adapters per virtual machine with up to 15 devices per adapter
  • 9TB per virtual disk
Virtual Ethernet Cards

Virtual Ethernet Cards

  • Up to 4 virtual Ethernet adapters per virtual machine

    Note: Each virtual machine has a total of 5 virtual PCI slots, so the total number of virtual adapters, SCSI plus Ethernet, cannot be greater than 5.

Virtual Floppy Drives

Virtual Floppy Drives

  • Up to two 1.44MB floppy drives per virtual machine
Virtual CD-ROM

Virtual CD-ROM

  • Up to two drives per virtual machine
Legacy Devices

Legacy Devices

Virtual machines may also make use of the following legacy devices. However, for performance reasons, use of these devices is not recommended.

Virtual Serial (COM) Ports

Virtual Serial (COM) Ports

  • Up to two serial ports per virtual machine
Virtual Parallel (LPT) Ports

Virtual Parallel (LPT) Ports

  • One LPT port per virtual machine

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