VMware ESX and ESXi Comparison
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VMware ESX
VMware ESXi
This article provides a detailed comparison of VMware ESX and VMware ESXi. The article is separated
in to capabilities or features and compared at that level.
Capability VMware ESX
Service Service Console is a standard Linux
Console environment through which a user has
privileged access to the VMware ESX kernel.
This Linux-based privileged access allows
you to highly customize your
environment by installing agents and drivers
and executing scripts and other Linux-
environment code.
Remote CLI VMware ESX Service Console has a host CLI
command through which VMware ESX can
be configured. ESX 3.5 Update 2 supports
RCLI.
VMware ESXi
VMware ESXi is designed to make the
server a computing appliance.
Accordingly, VMware ESXi behaves
more like firmware than traditional
software. To provide hardware-like
security and reliability, VMware ESXi
does not support a privileged access
environment like the Service Console
of VMware ESX. To enable interaction
with agents, VMware has provisioned
CIM Providers through which
monitoring and management tasks –
traditionally done through Service
Console agents – can be performed.
VMware has provisioned RCLI to
allow the execution of scripts.
VMware ESX Service Console CLI
has been ported to a Remote CLI
(RCLI) for VMware ESXi. RCLI is a
virtual appliance that interacts with
VMware ESXi hosts to enable host
configuration through scripts or
specific commands.
Note: RCLI is limited to read-only
access for the free version of VMware
ESXi. To enable full functionality of
RCLI on a VMware ESXi host, the
host must be licensed with VI
Foundation, VI Standard, or VI
Enterprise.
The following Service Console CLI
commands have not been
implemented in RCLI:

Scriptable VMware ESX supports scriptable installations
Installation through utilities like KickStart.
Boot from SAN VMware ESX supports boot from SAN.
Booting from SAN requires one dedicated
LUN per server.
• ESXcfg-info
• ESXcfg-resgrp
• ESXcfg-swiscsi
VMware ESXi Installable does not
support scriptable installations in the
manner ESX does, at this time.
VMware ESXi does provide support
for post installation configuration script
using RCLI-based configuration
scripts.
VMware ESXi may be deployed as an
embedded hypervisor or installed on a
hard disk.

In most enterprise settings, VMware

ESXi is deployed as an embedded
hypervisor directly on the server. This
operational model does not require
any local storage and no SAN booting
is required because the hypervisor
image is directly on the server.

The installable version of VMware

ESXi does not support booting from
SAN.
Serial Cable VMware ESX supports interaction through VMware ESXi does not support
Connectivity direct-attached serial cable to the VMware interaction through direct-attached
ESX host. serial cable to the VMware ESXi host
at this time.
SNMP VMware ESX supports SNMP. VMware ESXi supports SNMP when
licensed to a VI Foundation, VI
Standard, or VI Enterprise edition. The
free version of VMware ESXi does not
support SNMP.
Active Directory VMware ESX supports Active Directory VMware ESXi with a Virtual
Integration integration through third-party agents Infrastructure license and in
installed on the Service Console. conjunction with VirtualCenter allows
users to be authenticated via Active
Directory. In this configuration, users
can log in directly to an ESXi host and
authenticate using a local username
and password.

The free version of VMware ESXi

does not support Active Directory
integration at this time.
HW Service Console agents provide a range of VMware ESXi provides HW
Instrumentation HW instrumentation on VMware ESX. instrumentation through CIM
Providers. Standards-based CIM
Providers are distributed with all
versions of VMware ESXi. VMware
partners may inject their own
proprietary CIM Providers in
customized versions of VMware ESXi.
To obtain a customized version of
 VMware ESXi, you typically have to
purchase a server with embedded
VMware ESXi through a server
vendor.

At this time, HP also offers its

customized VMware ESXi Installable
on www.vmware.com. Dell and IBM
will soon offer their customized version
of VMware ESXi on
www.vmware.com.

Remote console applications like Dell

DRAC, HP iLO, and IBM RSA are
supported with ESXi.

Note: COS agents have a longer

Software VMware ESX software patches and upgrades
Patches and behave like traditional Linux based patches
Updates and upgrades. The installation of a software
patch or upgrade may require multiple
system boots as the patch or upgrade may
have dependencies on previous patches or
upgrades.
VI Web Access VMware ESX supports managing your virtual
machines through VI Web Access. You can
use the VI Web Access to connect directly to
the ESX host or to the VMware Infrastructure
Client.
Licensing VMware ESX hosts can be licensed as part
of a VMware Infrastructure 3 Foundation,
Standard, or Enterprise suite.
lineage than CIM Providers and are
therefore more mature. VMware is
actively working with its 250+
partners to close the CIM Provider–
Service Console agent gap.
VMware ESXi patches and updates
behave like firmware patches and
updates. Any given patch or update is
all-inclusive of previous patches and
updates. That is, installing patch
version “n” includes all updates
included in patch versions n-1, n-2,
and so forth.
VMware ESXi does not support web
access at this time.
VMware ESXi hosts can be
individually licensed (for free) or
licensed as part of a VMware
Infrastructure 3 Foundation, Standard,
or Enterprise suite.

Individually licensed ESXi hosts offer a

subset of management capabilities
(see SNMP and Remote CLI).

ESXi – Free License VI Foundation VI Standard VI Enterprise

(ESX not available (with ESX or (with ESX or (with ESX or
without VI) ESXi) ESXi) ESXi)
Core hypervisor
Yes Yes Yes Yes
functionality
Virtual SMP Yes Yes Yes Yes
VMFS Yes Yes Yes Yes
VirtualCenter Agent Yes Yes Yes
Update Manager Yes Yes Yes
 Consolidated Backup Yes Yes Yes
High Availability Yes Yes
VMotion Yes
Storage VMotion Yes
DRS Yes
DPM Yes

Last Modified Date: 10-15-2008 ID: 1006543