What are the limitations of free ESXi
Taking the latest vSphere 7.0 as example, VMware has also released a free version of ESXi, which changes hardware support and the disk layout of the ESXi drive, and the rest remains unchanged.
This free version of ESXi provided some convenience such as not limiting physical memory and the number of cores per CPU. But it also has many limitations. Let's talk about it.
1. You cannot manage virtual machines through vCenter Server.
Besides VMware vSphere Hypervisor, vCenter Server is the main management component which adds a range of advanced features such as vMotion, DRS, Software-defined storage (vSAN), High-Availability, cluster ESXi servers, upgrade Manager, etc. Unfortunately, there's no free version of vCenter. Therefore, an enterprise user may probably not consider the free version of VMware ESXi.
If you need to perform VMware vSphere H.A Cluster, vCenter Server is necessary to achieve high availability of virtual machines in cluster.
VMware vCenter Server
2. vStorage API is not accessible.
VMware doesn't provide vSphere Storage APIs for the free version of ESXi, which makes it difficult for many third-party software to perform automatic and multiple backups for VMs on free VMware ESXi. Native features such as Export& Import to manually back up virtual machines one by one are widely applied to protect the VM data.
However, manual backup is inconvenient and time-wasting. If you use free VMware ESXi and want an efficient VMware backup solution, you can try AOMEI Cyber Backup, an agentless backup software that supports both paid and free versions of VMware ESXi.
3. Up to 8 vCPUs per VM, any other VM with more than 8 vCPUs will not be started.
VMware ESXi free limitations
4. No VMware official support.
With the free version, if you confront problems, you will not be able to contact VMware support office, but you can browse the VMware community to find the solution.
*5. Up to 2 physical CPUs and 16 TB memory
The impact of these two points is not very significant in practice, and the restriction has been lifted in the free ESXi of vSphere 7.0.
To help you understand better, here's a comparison chart of VMware ESXi free and paid editions.
- Comparison between free ESXi vs paid ESXi -
_________________________ VMware ESXi Free ____VMware ESXi Paid
Expiration _________________No Limit _________ Not Applied
Community Support___VMTN Forums VMTN Forums
Maximum vCPUs per VM__ 8 vCPUs___256 vCPUs
Official Support ____________ No _______ Yes
vCenter Server ___________ No _______ Yes
Storage API (VADP) _______ No _______ Yes
High Availability ____________ No ______ Yes
vMotion _____________________ No ______ Yes
DRS ________________________ No ______ Yes
Considering these VMware ESXi free limitations, you may be able to decide whether you need the free version or paid version of ESXi. If you are new to vSphere ESXi or want to use ESXi in a home lab environment, I recommend you to try the free version that can meet some of your basic requirements.
In the next part, I will introduce how to download and install the VMware ESXi free version.
How to download and license free VMware ESXi
1. Download VMware ESXi from the VMware website. Pay attention to the compatibility of the free version.
2. Create an account and log in to your Customer Connect. Then you will get a license key and make a note of it.
Donwload ESXi free
3. Select Manually Download to start installing free version of ESXi.
4. Log in to the ESX/ESXi host and go to assign a license to ESXi host. Click Manage >> Licensing >> Assign License.
5. Enter the license key in the text box. Then click Check license.
6. Review the license keys and click Finish.
In this way, you can simply get your ESXi host a free license and start using it. The next thing to consider is how to manage your virtual environment in a healthy and long-lasting way.
As we know, virtual machines, whether used in production or test environments, are likely to suffer data loss, corruption or even system crashes for various reasons. In order not to cause more serious consequences, we usually use some backup solutions to keep the VMware virtual machines under protection.
However, the limitation of not supporting vStorage APIs may cause you not to be able to use the same backup solution for VMware free ESXi as for the paid versions.
ESXi 8.0도 7.0이랑 비슷 한 것 같습니다.
제한사항을 두고.. Free 입니다.
최대 CPU소켓과 메모리 한계가 풀렸고.. VM에 대한 할당 제한만 있구만요.
기타 제한 사항은 비슷하구만요.
According to the current licensing whitepaper, the hypervisor may be installed on up to 100 hosts with no limits on the number of CPUs or memory. However, the limit of 8 vCPUs per VM remains in place.
One of the biggest limitations of the free version is that it cannot be managed via vCenter, and thus, each host has to be administered individually. Accordingly, the option to form a cluster and associated features, such as HA or DRS, are also missing.
In addition, the vStorage API is not available, so you can't back up VMs with popular backup programs.
What are the limitations of free ESXi
Taking the latest vSphere 7.0 as example, VMware has also released a free version of ESXi, which changes hardware support and the disk layout of the ESXi drive, and the rest remains unchanged.
This free version of ESXi provided some convenience such as not limiting physical memory and the number of cores per CPU. But it also has many limitations. Let's talk about it.
1. You cannot manage virtual machines through vCenter Server.
Besides VMware vSphere Hypervisor, vCenter Server is the main management component which adds a range of advanced features such as vMotion, DRS, Software-defined storage (vSAN), High-Availability, cluster ESXi servers, upgrade Manager, etc. Unfortunately, there's no free version of vCenter. Therefore, an enterprise user may probably not consider the free version of VMware ESXi.
If you need to perform VMware vSphere H.A Cluster, vCenter Server is necessary to achieve high availability of virtual machines in cluster.
VMware vCenter Server
2. vStorage API is not accessible.
VMware doesn't provide vSphere Storage APIs for the free version of ESXi, which makes it difficult for many third-party software to perform automatic and multiple backups for VMs on free VMware ESXi. Native features such as Export& Import to manually back up virtual machines one by one are widely applied to protect the VM data.
However, manual backup is inconvenient and time-wasting. If you use free VMware ESXi and want an efficient VMware backup solution, you can try AOMEI Cyber Backup, an agentless backup software that supports both paid and free versions of VMware ESXi.
3. Up to 8 vCPUs per VM, any other VM with more than 8 vCPUs will not be started.
VMware ESXi free limitations
4. No VMware official support.
With the free version, if you confront problems, you will not be able to contact VMware support office, but you can browse the VMware community to find the solution.
*5. Up to 2 physical CPUs and 16 TB memory
The impact of these two points is not very significant in practice, and the restriction has been lifted in the free ESXi of vSphere 7.0.
To help you understand better, here's a comparison chart of VMware ESXi free and paid editions.
- Comparison between free ESXi vs paid ESXi -
_________________________ VMware ESXi Free ____VMware ESXi Paid
Expiration _________________No Limit _________ Not Applied
Community Support___VMTN Forums VMTN Forums
Maximum vCPUs per VM__ 8 vCPUs___256 vCPUs
Official Support ____________ No _______ Yes
vCenter Server ___________ No _______ Yes
Storage API (VADP) _______ No _______ Yes
High Availability ____________ No ______ Yes
vMotion _____________________ No ______ Yes
DRS ________________________ No ______ Yes
Considering these VMware ESXi free limitations, you may be able to decide whether you need the free version or paid version of ESXi. If you are new to vSphere ESXi or want to use ESXi in a home lab environment, I recommend you to try the free version that can meet some of your basic requirements.
In the next part, I will introduce how to download and install the VMware ESXi free version.
How to download and license free VMware ESXi
1. Download VMware ESXi from the VMware website. Pay attention to the compatibility of the free version.
2. Create an account and log in to your Customer Connect. Then you will get a license key and make a note of it.
Donwload ESXi free
3. Select Manually Download to start installing free version of ESXi.
4. Log in to the ESX/ESXi host and go to assign a license to ESXi host. Click Manage >> Licensing >> Assign License.
5. Enter the license key in the text box. Then click Check license.
6. Review the license keys and click Finish.
In this way, you can simply get your ESXi host a free license and start using it. The next thing to consider is how to manage your virtual environment in a healthy and long-lasting way.
As we know, virtual machines, whether used in production or test environments, are likely to suffer data loss, corruption or even system crashes for various reasons. In order not to cause more serious consequences, we usually use some backup solutions to keep the VMware virtual machines under protection.
However, the limitation of not supporting vStorage APIs may cause you not to be able to use the same backup solution for VMware free ESXi as for the paid versions.
https://www.ubackup.com/enterprise-backup/vmware-esxi-free-limitations.html
제한사항을 두고.. Free 입니다.
최대 CPU소켓과 메모리 한계가 풀렸고.. VM에 대한 할당 제한만 있구만요.
기타 제한 사항은 비슷하구만요.
According to the current licensing whitepaper, the hypervisor may be installed on up to 100 hosts with no limits on the number of CPUs or memory. However, the limit of 8 vCPUs per VM remains in place.
One of the biggest limitations of the free version is that it cannot be managed via vCenter, and thus, each host has to be administered individually. Accordingly, the option to form a cluster and associated features, such as HA or DRS, are also missing.
In addition, the vStorage API is not available, so you can't back up VMs with popular backup programs.
여기서 라이센스를 눌면 등록을 하라고 하고
https://customerconnect.vmware.com/en/evalcenter?p=vsphere-eval-8
여기를 보니 60일 트라이얼 이라고 하는데 무료가 아니라 60일 무료사용으로 보여서 질문 드렸던 거거든요
등록을 하면 그때부터 60일 카운트 들어가는 거같아 일단 당장은 꼭 필요하진 않아 등록 버튼을 누르진 않고 질문을 드려본것입니다.
밑에 링크는 Product Evaluation Center for VMware vSphere Hypervisor 8, 즉 ESXi 를 관리해주는 겁니다.
두개는 다른거죠.
이건 당연히 안되는 것일건데
그럼 ESXi 8 라이센스 신청할 때 60일 트라이얼 나오는 것은 vCenter 말하는 것인가요 ?
위쪽 링크는 ESXi 8 무료 라이센스를 받기 위한 링크이고, 아래쪽 링크는 vSphere 8 60일 평가 라이센스를 발행하기 위한 링크입니다. Evaluation license는 기능 제한이 없습니다.
다만 현제 7은 더 이상 발급 안 될껍니다
https://customerconnect.vmware.com/en/evalcenter?p=free-esxi7
적어주신 답글 덕분에 무료 라이센스를 발급받았습니다.
궁금한게 하나 있는데
무료 라이센스를 서버 1개에만 설치가 가능한가요?
HDD 복사로 다른 서버에 그 무료 라이센스 된거를 복사해서 사용이 가능한가요?
아니면 각각 서버마다 무료 라인센스를 받아야 하나요?
인증하면 인증은 여러대 다 되요 (하지만 라이센스 위반)
그부분을 고민중이라.
어차피 VCSA물리지도 못하는 버전이니 라이센스 중복되어서 인증 불능같은일은 없습니다
그런데 무료 라이센스란게 계정 기준으로 1개를 주는건지, 1인당 1개를 주는건지 모르겠습니다 (후자면 혼자 여러개 받는것도 불법)
라이센스 중복으로 복사해서 써야겠네요. ㅋㅋ
금칙 사항입니다
같은 네트워크에서 그런식으로 늘리거나, 같은 설정파일 복원해서 늘리거나하지마세요 (디스크 고장등을 대비해서 사본 만들어뒀다가 동일 서버에 다시 꽃는건 몰라도 하나를 복제해서 복수 만들면 안 됩니다)
물른 프리 라이센스는 연동 관련 없긴한데, 그래도 추천하고 싶진 않네요
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