Vsphere 60 Configuration Maximums

Configuration MaximumsvSphere 6.0

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EN-001717-00

Configuration Maximums

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Contents

1 Introduction 5 2 Virtual Machine Maximums 7 3 ESXi Host Maximums 9

Compute Maximums 9Memory Maximums 10Storage Maximums 10Networking Maximums 12Cluster and Resource Pool Maximums 13Using Maximum Values for More than One Configuration Option 14

4 vCenter Server Maximums 15 5 Platform Services Controller 17 6 vCenter Server Extensions 19

VMware vCenter Update Manager 19VMware vCenter Orchestrator 20Storage DRS 20

7 VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache 21 8 VMware Virtual SAN 23 9 Virtual Volumes 25 10 Network I/O Control (NIOC) 27

Index 29

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Introduction 1When you select and configure your virtual and physical equipment, you must stay at or below themaximums supported by vSphere 6.0.The limits presented in the following sections represent tested, recommended limits, and are fullysupported by VMware.n Virtual Machine Maximumsn ESXi Host Maximumsn vCenter Server Maximumsn Platform Services Controllern vCenter Server Extensionsn VMware vSphere Flash Read Cachen VMware Virtual SANn Virtual Volumesn Network I/O ControlThe limits presented in the guide are applicable to ESXi host and vCenter Server. The limits can be affectedby other factors, such as hardware dependencies. For more information about supported hardware, see theappropriate ESXi hardware compatibility guide. Consult individual solution limits to ensure that you do notexceed supported configurations for your environment.

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Virtual Machine Maximums 2The virtual machine maximums represent limits applicable to compute, memory, storage virtual adaptersand devices, network virtual devices, virtual peripheral ports, and graphics video device.Table 21. Virtual Machine MaximumsItem MaximumComputeVirtual CPUs per virtual machine (VirtualSMP)

128

MemoryRAM per virtual machine 4 TB

The actual value supported is 4080 GB and not 4096 GB.Virtual machine swap file size 4 TB

VMFS3 with 1MB block maximum swap size is 255 GB. Recommended solutionis VMFS5, not VMFS3 with bigger block size.

Storage Virtual Adapters and DevicesVirtual SCSI adapters per virtual machine 4Virtual SCSI targets per virtual SCSI adapter 15

Any combination of disk or VMDirectPath SCSI target.Virtual SCSI targets per virtual machine 60Virtual disk size 62 TBIDE controllers per virtual machine 1

Supports two channels (primary and secondary) each with a master and slavedevice.

IDE devices per virtual machine 4Devices can be either CD-ROM or disk.

Floppy controllers per virtual machine 1Floppy devices per virtual machine 2

BIOS is configured for one floppy device.Virtual SATA adapters per virtual machine 4Virtual SATA devices per virtual SATAadapter

30Devices can be either CD-ROM or disk

Networking Virtual DevicesVirtual NICs per virtual machine 10

Any combination of supported virtual NICs.

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Table 21. Virtual Machine Maximums (Continued)Item MaximumVirtual Peripheral PortsUSB host controllers per virtual machine 1

USB 1.x, 2.x and 3.x supported. One USB host controller of each version 1.x, 2.x,or 3.x can be added at the same time.

USB devices connected to a virtual machine 20Guest operating systems might have lower limits than allowed by vSphere.

Parallel ports per virtual machine 3Serial ports per virtual machine 32MiscellaneousConcurrent remote console connections to avirtual machine

40

Graphics video deviceVideo memory per virtual machine 512 MB


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ESXi Host Maximums 3ESXi host maximums represents the maximums for compute, memory, storage, networking maximums, andcluster and resource pool.

This chapter includes the following topics:n Compute Maximums, on page 9n Memory Maximums, on page 10n Storage Maximums, on page 10n Networking Maximums, on page 12n Cluster and Resource Pool Maximums, on page 13n Using Maximum Values for More than One Configuration Option, on page 14

Compute MaximumsThe ESXi host compute maximums represents the limits for host CPU, virtual machine, and fault tolerance.Table 31. Compute MaximumsItem MaximumHost CPU maximumsLogical CPUs per host 480NUMA Nodes per host 16Virtual machine maximumsVirtual machines per host 1024Virtual CPUs per host 4096Virtual CPUs per core 32

The achievable number of vCPUs per core depends on the workload and specificsof the hardware. For more information, see the latest version of Performance BestPractices for VMware vSphere.

Fault Tolerance maximumsVirtual disks 16Virtual CPUs per virtual machine 4RAM per FT VM 64 GB

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Table 31. Compute Maximums (Continued)Item MaximumVirtual machines per host 4Virtual CPU per host 8

Memory MaximumsThe ESXi host maximums represents the limits for ESXi host memory.Table 32. ESXi Host Memory MaximumsItem MaximumRAM per host 6 TB

12 TB is supported on specific OEM certified platform. Please refer to VMwareHardware Compatibility Limits for guidance on the platforms that supportvSphere 6.0 with 12 TB of physical memory.

Number of swap files 1 per virtual machine

Storage MaximumsThe ESXi host storage maximums represents the limits for virtual disks, iSCSI physical, NAS, Fibre Channel,FCoE, Common VMFS, and VMFS5.Table 33. Storage MaximumsItem MaximumVirtual DisksVirtual Disks per Host 2048iSCSI PhysicalLUNs per server 256Qlogic 1 Gb iSCSI HBA initiator ports perserver

4

Broadcom 1 Gb iSCSI HBA initiator portsper server

4

Broadcom 10 Gb iSCSI HBA initiator portsper server

4

NICs that can be associated or port boundwith the software iSCSI stack per server

8

Number of total paths on a server 1024Number of paths to a LUN (software iSCSIand hardware iSCSI)

8

Qlogic iSCSI: dynamic targets per adapterport

64

Qlogic iSCSI: static targets per adapter port 62Broadcom 1 Gb iSCSI HBA targets peradapter port

64

Broadcom 10 Gb iSCSI HBA targets peradapter port

128


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Table 33. Storage Maximums (Continued)Item MaximumSoftware iSCSI targets 256

The sum of static targets (manually assigned IP addresses) and dynamic targets(IP addresses assigned to discovered targets) may not exceed this number.

NASNFS mounts per host 256Fibre ChannelLUNs per host 256LUN size 64 TBLUN ID 1023Number of paths to a LUN 32Number of total paths on a server 1024Number of HBAs of any type 8HBA ports 16Targets per HBA 256FCoESoftware FCoE adapters 4Common VMFSVolume size 64 TB

For VMFS3 volumes with 1 MB block size, the maximum is 50 TB.Volumes per host 256Hosts per volume 64Powered on virtual machines per VMFSvolume

2048

Concurrent vMotion operations per VMFSvolume

128

VMFS3Raw device mapping size (virtual andphysical)

2 TB minus 512 bytes

Block size 8 MBFile size (1 MB block size) 256 GBFile size (2 MB block size) 512 GBFile size (4 MB block size) 1 TBFile size (8 MB block size) 2 TB minus 512 bytesFiles per volume Approximately 30,720VMFS5Raw Device Mapping size (virtualcompatibility)

62 TB

Raw Device Mapping size (physicalcompatibility)

64 TB

Block size 1 MB1MB is default block size. Upgraded VMFS5 volumes inherit the VMFS3 blocksize value.

Chapter 3 ESXi Host Maximums

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Table 33. Storage Maximums (Continued)Item MaximumFile size 62 TBFiles per volume Approximately 130,690

Networking MaximumsNetworking maximums represent achievable maximum configuration limits in networking environmentswhere no other more restrictive limits apply (for example, vCenter Server limits, the limits imposed byfeatures such as HA or DRS, and other configurations that might impose restrictions must be consideredwhen deploying large scale systems).Table 34. Networking MaximumsItem MaximumPhysical NICse1000e 1 Gb Ethernet ports (Intel PCI-e) 24igb 1 Gb Ethernet ports (Intel) 16tg3 1 Gb Ethernet ports (Broadcom) 16 with NetQueue enabled

32 with NetQueue disabledThe NetQue is enabled by default in vSphere 6.0.

bnx2 1 Gb Ethernet ports (QLogic) 16nx_nic 10 Gb Ethernet ports (NetXen) 8elxnet 10Gb Ethernet ports (Emulex) 8ixgbe 10 Gb Ethernet ports (Intel) 16bnx2x 10 Gb Ethernet ports (QLogic) 8Infiniband ports (refer to VMwareCommunity Support)

N/AMellanox Technologies InfiniBand HCA device drivers are available directly fromMellanox Technologies. Go to the Mellanox Web site information about supportstatus of InfiniBand HCAs with ESXi. http://www.mellanox.com

Combination of 10 Gb and 1Gb ethernetports

Sixteen 10 Gb and four 1 Gb ports

nmlx4_en 40 GB Ethernet Ports (Mellanox) 4VMDirectPath limitsVMDirectPath PCI/PCIe devices per host 8

A virtual machine can support 6 devices, if 2 of them are Teradici devices.SR-IOV Number of virtual functions 1024

SR-IOV supports up to 43 virtual functions on supported Intel NICs and up to64 virtual functions on supported Emulex NICs. The actual number of virtualfunctions available for passthrough depends on the number of interrupts vectorsrequired by each of them and on the hardware configuration of the host. EachESXi host has a limited number of interrupt vectors. When the host boots, deviceson the host such as storage controllers, physical network adapters, and USBcontrollers consume a subset of the total number of vectors. Depending upon thenumber of vectors these devices consume, the maximum number of potentiallysupported VFs could be reduced.

SR-IOV Number of 10 G pNICs 8VMDirectPath PCI/PCIe devices per virtualmachine

4

vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch


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Table 34. Networking Maximums (Continued)Item MaximumTotal virtual network switch ports per host(VDS and VSS ports)

4096

Maximum active ports per host (VDS andVSS)

1016

Virtual network switch creation ports perstandard switch

4088

Port groups per standard switch 512Static/Dynamic port groups per distributedswitch

10,000

Ephemeral port groups per distributedswitch

1016

Ports per distributed switch 60,000Distributed virtual network switch ports pervCenter

60,000

Static/dynamic port groups per vCenter 10,000Ephemeral port groups per vCenter 1016Distributed switches per vCenter 128Distributed switches per host 16VSS portgroups per host 1000LACP - LAGs per host 64LACP - uplink ports per LAG (Team) 32Hosts per distributed switch 1000NIOC resource pools per vDS 64Link aggregation groups per vDS 64

Cluster and Resource Pool MaximumsThe ESXi host cluster and resource pool maxmimums represents limits for cluster and resource pool.Table 35. Compute MaximumsItem MaximumCluster (all clusters including HA and DRS)Hosts per cluster 64Virtual Machines per cluster 8000Virtual machines per host 1024Powered-on virtual machine config files perdatastore in an HA cluster

2048This limit does not apply to virtual disks. A virtual machine enabled with FaultTolerance counts as two virtual machines.

FT virtual machines per cluster 98FT virtual machines vCPU per Cluster 256Resource PoolResource pools per host 1600Children per resource pool 1100

Chapter 3 ESXi Host Maximums

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Table 35. Compute Maximums (Continued)Item MaximumResource pool tree depth 8

Additional 4 resource pools are used by system internals.Resource pools per cluster 1600

Using Maximum Values for More than One Configuration OptionIf any one of the configuration options listed in the above tables is used at its maximum limit value, the ESXihost and vCenter Server with default configuration should be able to withstand the values.If more than one configuration options (such as number of virtual machines, number of LUNs, and numberof VDS ports) are used at their maximum limit, some of the processes running on the host might run out ofmemory. This might cause the host to keep disconnecting from the vCenter Server. In such a case, you needto increase the memory pool for these host processes so that the host can withstand the workload you areplanning. You need to increase your memory pool size in correlation to the number of configuration optionsyou are using at the maximum value.


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vCenter Server Maximums 4The vCenter Server maximums represents limits for vCenter Server scalability, user interface, concurrentoperations, and vCenter Server Appliance.Table 41. vCenter Server MaximumsItem MaximumvCenter Server ScalabilityHosts per vCenter Server 1000Powered-on virtual machines per vCenter Server 10,000Registered virtual machines per vCenter Server 15,000Linked vCenter Servers 10Hosts in linked vCenter Servers 4000Powered-on virtual machines in linked vCenter Servers 30,000Registered virtual machines in linked vCenter Servers 50,000Concurrent vSphere Web Clients connections to vCenterServer

180

Number of host per datacenter 500MAC addresses per vCenter Server (using default VMwareOUI)

65,536

User InterfaceUSB devices connected per vSphere Client 20Concurrent operationsvMotion operations per host (1 Gb/s network) 4vMotion operations per host (10 Gb/s network) 8vMotion operations per datastore 128Storage vMotion operations per host 2Storage vMotion operations per datastore 8vCenter Server ApplianceHosts (with embedded vPostgres database) 1000Virtual machines (with embedded vPostgres database) 15,000Hosts (with Oracle database) 1000Virtual machines (with Oracle database) 15,000vCenter Server Windows embedded/packaged vPostgres

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Table 41. vCenter Server Maximums (Continued)Item MaximumHosts (with embedded vPostgres database) 20Virtual machines (with embedded vPostgres database) 200Content LibraryTotal CL items per VC (across all libraries) 200Total number of libraries per VC 20Total items per library 200Maximum number of subscribers per library 5Host ProfileHosts 21Powered On virtual machines 100Datastores 120Profile Created 1200Profile Attached 1000


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Platform Services Controller 5The Platform Services Controller maximums represent limits for domain or replication, identity source,enhanced linked mode or lookup service, and VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA).Table 51. Platform Service Controller maximumsItem MaximumDomain/ReplicationMaximum PSCs per vSphere Domain 8Maximum PSCs per site, behind a load balancer 4Maximum objects within a vSphere Domain (Users andGroups)

1,000,000

Maximum tolerance for time skew between PSC nodes 5 minutesIdentity SourceMaximum Active Directory or OpenLDAP Groups perUser for best performance

1015

Enhanced Linked Mode/Lookup ServiceMaximum number of VMware Solutions connected to asingle PSC

4This limit is based on the test performed using only vCenterServer.

Maximum number of VMware Solutions in a vSphereDomain

10

VMCA/CertificateMaximum number of subordinate Certificate Authorityservers in the chain within VMware Certificate Authority

6

Maximum cryptographic hash used for PSC Nodecertificate

1

Maximum RSA Public Key length used for PSC Nodecertificate

16,384

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vCenter Server Extensions 6The vCenter Server Extensions represents limits for VMware vCenter Update Manager, VMware vCenterOrchestrator, and Storage DRS.This chapter includes the following topics:n VMware vCenter Update Manager, on page 19n VMware vCenter Orchestrator, on page 20n Storage DRS, on page 20

VMware vCenter Update ManagerThe VMware vCenter Update Manager maximums represent limits for concurrent operations.Table 61. vCenter Update Manager MaximumsItem MaximumConcurrent OperationsVMware Tools scan per ESXi host 90VMware Tools upgrade per ESXi host 24Virtual machine hardware scan per host 90Virtual machine hardware upgrade per host 24VMware Tools scan per VUM server 90VMware Tools upgrade per VUM server 75Virtual machine hardware scan per VUM server 90Virtual machine hardware upgrade per VUM server 75ESXi host scan per VUM server 75ESXi host remediation per VUM server 71ESXi host upgrade per VUM server 71Cisco DVS update and deployment 70

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VMware vCenter OrchestratorThe VMware vCenter Orchestrator maximums represents limits for vCenter Server systems, ESXi instances,virtual machines and supported workflows.Table 62. vCenter Orchestrator MaximumsItem MaximumConnected vCenter Server systems 20Connected ESXi instances 1280Connected virtual machines 35,000

15,000 per vCenter Orchestrator Cluster node.Concurrent running workflows 300

Storage DRSEnsure that you configure storage DRS within the limits defined as storage DRS maximums.Table 63. Storage DRS MaximumsItem MaximumVirtual disks per datastore cluster 9000Datastores per datastore cluster 64Datastore clusters per vCenter 256


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VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache 7Ensure that you configure vMware vSphere Flash Read Cache within the limits defined by flash read cachemaximums.Table 71. Flash Read Cache MaximumsItem MaximumVirtual flash resource per host 1Maximum cache for each virtual disk 400 GBCumulative cache configured per host (for all virtual disks) 2 TBVirtual disk size 16 TBVirtual host swap cache size 4 TBFlash devices per virtual flash resource 8

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VMware Virtual SAN 8The VMware Virtual SAN maximums represents limits applicable for virtual SAN ESXi host, virtual SANcluster, virtual SAN virtual machines, virtual SAN VM storage policy, and virtual networking.Table 81. Virtual SAN Maximums.Item MaximumVirtual SAN ESXi hostVirtual SAN disk groups per host 5Magnetic disks per disk group 7SSD disks per disk group 1Spinning disks in all diskgroups per host 35Components per Virtual SAN host 9000Cache tier maximum devices per host 5Capacity tier maximum devices per diskgroup 7Capacity tier maximum devices 35Virtual SAN ClusterNumber of Virtual SAN hosts in a cluster 64Number of datastores per cluster 1Virtual SAN virtual machinesVirtual machines per host 200Virtual machines per cluster 6400Virtual machine virtual disk size 62 TBDisk stripes per object 12Percentage of flash read cache reservation 100Failure to tolerate 3 for VM virtual disk size 16 TBPercentage of object space reservation 100Virtual SAN networks/physical network fabrics 2

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Virtual Volumes 9Ensure you configure the virtual volume size within the maximums defined.Table 91. Virtual VolumesItem MaximumData Virtual Volume Size 62 TBNumber of Virtual Volumes bound to a host 64,000Number of PEs per host 256Storage Container size 2^64Storage Container per host 256Maximum outstanding PE I/O operations 128

The outstanding PE I/O operations is configurable up to 4096.Configured VPs per host 128Maximum configured VVol managed storage arrays perhost

64

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Network I/O Control (NIOC) 10Ensure you configure VMware vSphere Network I/O Control within the maximums defined.Table 101. NIOCItem MaximumNumber of resource pools 10000Number of uplinks per vds 32Number of uplinks per host 32Number of vNIC per host 5120Max pNIC bandwidth Approximately 10 Gbits/sec for 10G pNIC

Approximately 1 Gbits/sec for 1G pNIC

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Index

Ccompute maximums 9configuration maximums 5

EESXi host maximums 9

Mmemory maximums 10multiple configuration option 14

Nnetworking maximums 12NIOC 27

PPlatform Services Controller 17

SStorage DRS 20storage maximums 10

VvCenter Server maximums 15vCenter Server Extensions 19virtual machine maximums 7virtual volumes 25VMware vCenter Update Manager 19VMware Virtual SAN 23VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache 21

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Configuration MaximumsContentsIntroductionVirtual Machine MaximumsESXi Host MaximumsCompute MaximumsMemory MaximumsStorage MaximumsNetworking MaximumsCluster and Resource Pool MaximumsUsing Maximum Values for More than One Configuration Option

vCenter Server MaximumsPlatform Services ControllervCenter Server ExtensionsVMware vCenter Update ManagerVMware vCenter OrchestratorStorage DRS

VMware vSphere Flash Read CacheVMware Virtual SANVirtual VolumesNetwork I/O Control (NIOC)Index

Vsphere 60 Configuration Maximums

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