Here I have summarized the comparison with a list of selected features between vSphere ESXi 5.0, 5.1 and 5.5. I have skipped some of the features for detailed overview on all the comparison factors please visit vmware's official website.
ESXi Virtual Machine Maximum
|
Items
|
Maximum
|
||
|
|
vSphere 5.0
|
vSphere 5.1
|
vSphere 5.5
|
|
Virtual CPUs per virtual machine
|
32
|
64
|
64
|
|
RAM per virtual machine
|
1 TB
|
1 TB
|
1 TB
|
|
Virtual SCSI targets per virtual machine
|
60
|
60
|
60
|
|
Virtual Disks per virtual machine
|
60
|
60
|
60
|
|
Virtual NIC per virtual machine
|
10
|
10
|
10
|
|
Concurrent remote console connection per virtual machine
|
40
|
40
|
40
|
|
Virtual disk size
|
2 TB
|
2 TB
|
62 TB
|
|
Video memory per virtual machine
|
128 MB
|
128 MB
|
512 MB
|
ESXi Host maximum
|
Items
|
Maximum
|
||
|
|
vSphere 5.0
|
vSphere 5.1
|
vSphere 5.5
|
|
Logical CPUs per host
|
160
|
160
|
320
|
|
Virtual machine per host
|
512
|
512
|
512
|
|
Virtual CPUS per host
|
2048
|
2048
|
4096
|
|
Virtual CPUs per core
|
25
|
25
|
32
|
|
FT Virtual Disks
|
16
|
16
|
16
|
|
RAM per FT virtual machine
|
64
|
64
|
64
|
|
FT virtual machine per host
|
4
|
4
|
4
|
|
FT virtual CPUs per virtual machine
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
Memory Maximum
|
Items
|
Maximum
|
||
|
|
vSphere 5.0
|
vSphere 5.1
|
vSphere 5.5
|
|
RAM per host
|
2 TB
|
2 TB
|
4 TB
|
|
No of swap files per virtual machine
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
|
Swap file size
|
1 TB
|
1 TB
|
NA
|
Storage Maximum
|
Items
|
Maximum
|
||
|
|
vSphere 5.0
|
vSphere 5.1
|
vSphere 5.5
|
|
Virtual Disks per host
|
2048
|
2048
|
2048
|
|
LUNs per server
|
256
|
256
|
256
|
|
Broadcom 1Gb iSCSI HBA initiator ports per server
|
4
|
4
|
4
|
|
Broadcom 10Gb iSCSI HBA initiator ports per server
|
4
|
4
|
4
|
|
No. of total paths on a server
|
1024
|
1024
|
1024
|
|
No. of paths to a LUN
|
8
|
8
|
8
|
|
Software iSCSI targets
|
256
|
256
|
256
|
|
LUNs per host
|
256
|
256
|
256
|
|
LUN size
|
NA
|
64 TB
|
64 TB
|
|
No. of paths to a LUN
|
32
|
32
|
32
|
|
No. of total paths on a server
|
1024
|
1024
|
1024
|
|
No. of HBAs of any type
|
8
|
8
|
8
|
|
HBA ports
|
16
|
16
|
16
|
|
Targets per HBA
|
256
|
256
|
256
|
|
Concurrent vMotion operations per datastore
|
128
|
128
|
128
|
|
Concurrent storage vMotion operations per datastore
|
8
|
8
|
8
|
|
Concurrent storage vMotion operations per host
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
|
Concurrent vMotion operations per host (1Gb/s network)
|
4
|
4
|
4
|
|
Concurrent vMotion operations per host (10Gb/s network)
|
8
|
8
|
8
|
Cluster and resource pool maximums
|
Items
|
Maximum
|
||
|
|
vSphere 5.0
|
vSphere 5.1
|
vSphere 5.5
|
|
Hosts per cluster
|
32
|
32
|
32
|
|
Virtual machine per cluster
|
3000
|
4000
|
4000
|
|
Virtual machines per host
|
512
|
512
|
512
|
|
Resource pools per host
|
1600
|
1600
|
1600
|
|
Children per resource pool
|
1024
|
1024
|
1024
|
|
Resource pools per cluster
|
1600
|
1600
|
1600
|
vCenter Server maximums
|
Items
|
Maximum
|
||
|
|
vSphere 5.0
|
vSphere 5.1
|
vSphere 5.5
|
|
Hosts per vCenter Server
|
1000
|
1000
|
1000
|
|
Powered‐on virtual machines per vCenter Server
|
10000
|
10000
|
10000
|
|
Registered virtual machines per vCenter Server
|
1500
|
1500
|
1500
|
|
Linked vCenter Servers
|
10
|
10
|
10
|
|
Hosts in linked vCenter Servers
|
3000
|
3000
|
3000
|
|
Concurrent vSphere Client connections to vCenter Server
|
100
|
100
|
100
|
|
Number of host per datacentre
|
500
|
500
|
500
|
|
Registered virtual machines in linked vCenter Servers
|
50000
|
50000
|
50000
|
Storage DRS
|
Items
|
Maximum
|
||
|
|
vSphere 5.0
|
vSphere 5.1
|
vSphere 5.5
|
|
Virtual disks per datastore cluster
|
9000
|
9000
|
9000
|
|
Datastores per datastore cluster
|
32
|
32
|
32
|
|
Datastore clusters per vCenter
|
256
|
256
|
256
|
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