| Maximum Type | Maximum | Recommended Maximum value | Description |
| Virtual Machine Maximums | |||
| Compute | Virtual CPUs per virtual machine (Virtual SMP) | 128 | |
| Memory | RAM per virtual machine | 6128 GB | |
| Memory | Virtual machine swap file size | 6128 | VMFS3 with 1 MB block maximum swap size is 255 GB. Recommended solution is VMFS5, not VMFS3 with bigger block size |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | Virtual SCSI adapters per virtual machine | 4 | |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | Virtual SCSI targets per virtual SCSI adapter | 15 | Any combination of disk or VMDirectPath SCSI target. |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | Virtual SCSI targets per virtual machine | 60 | |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | Virtual NVMe adapters per virtual machine | 4 | |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | Virtual NVMe targets per virtual SCSI adapter | 15 | |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | Virtual NVMe targets per virtual machine | 60 | |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | Virtual disk size | 62 TB | |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | IDE controllers per virtual machine | 1 | Supports two channels (primary and secondary) each with a master and slave device. |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | IDE devices per virtual machine | 4 | Devices can be either CD ROM or disk. |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | IDE CDROM devices per virtual machine | 4 | |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | Floppy controllers per virtual machine | 1 | |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | Floppy devices per virtual machine | 2 | BIOS is configured for one floppy device. |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | Virtual SATA adapters per virtual machine | 4 | |
| Storage Virtual Adapters and Devices | Virtual SATA devices per virtual SATA adapter | 30 | Devices can be either CD ROM or disk |
| Networking Virtual Devices | Virtual NICs per virtual machine | 10 | Any combination of supported virtual NICs |
| Networking Virtual Devices | Virtual NICs per virtual machine | 1 | |
| Virtual Peripheral Ports | USB 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. |
| Virtual Peripheral Ports | USB devices connected to a virtual machine | 20 | Guest operating systems might have lower limits than allowed by vSphere. |
| Virtual Peripheral Ports | Parallel ports per virtual machine | 3 | |
| Virtual Peripheral Ports | Serial ports per virtual machine | 32 |
Recommended Configuration Maximums
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| Maximum Type | Maximum | Recommended Maximum value | Description |
| Miscellaneous | Concurrent remote console connections to a virtual machine | 40 | |
| Miscellaneous | Video memory per virtual machine | 2 GB | |
| ESXi Host Maximums : Compute Maximums | |||
| Host CPU maximums | Logical CPUs per host | 576 | |
| Virtual machine maximums | Virtual machines per host | 1024 | |
| Virtual machine maximums | Virtual CPUs per host | 4096 | |
| Virtual machine maximums | Virtual CPUs per core | 32 | The achievable number of vCPUs per core depends on the workload and specifics of the hardware. For more information, see the latest version of Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere. |
| Fault Tolerance maximums | Virtual disks | 16 | |
| Fault Tolerance maximums | Disk size | 2 TB | |
| Fault Tolerance maximums | Virtual CPUs per virtual machine | 4 | |
| Fault Tolerance maximums | RAM per FT VM | 64 GB | |
| Fault Tolerance maximums | Virtual machines per host | 4 | |
| Fault Tolerance maximums | Virtual CPU per host | 8 | |
| ESXi Host Maximums : Memory Maximums | |||
| ESXi Host Memory Maximums | Maximum RAM per host | 12 TB | 12 TB is supported on specific OEM certified platform. See VMware Hardware Compatibility Limits for guidance on the platforms that support vSphere 6.0 with 12 TB of physical memory. |
| ESXi Host Memory Maximums | Number of swap files | 1 per virtual machine | |
| ESXi Host Maximums : Storage Maximums | |||
| Virtual Disks | Virtual Disks per Host | 2048 | |
| iSCSI Physical | LUNs per server | 512 | |
| iSCSI Physical | Cavium (Qlogic) 1 Gb iSCSI HBA initiator ports per server | 4 | |
| iSCSI Physical | Cavium (Qlogic) 10 Gb iSCSI HBA initiator ports per server | 4 | |
| iSCSI Physical | NICs that can be associated or port bound with the software iSCSI stack per server | 8 | |
| iSCSI Physical | Number of total paths on a server | 2048 | |
| iSCSI Physical | Number of paths to a LUN (software iSCSI and hardware iSCSI) | 8 | |
| iSCSI Physical | Cavium (Qlogic) 1 Gb iSCSI HBA targets per adapter port | 64 |
Recommended Configuration Maximums
VMware, Inc.
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| Maximum Type | Maximum | Recommended Maximum value | Description |
| iSCSI Physical | Cavium (Qlogic)10 Gb iSCSI HBA targets per adapter port | 128 | |
| iSCSI Physical | Software 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. |
| NAS | NFS mounts per host | 256 | |
| Fibre Channel | LUNs per host | 512 | |
| Fibre Channel | LUN size | 64 TB | |
| Fibre Channel | LUN ID | 0 to 16383 | |
| Fibre Channel | Number of paths to a LUN | 32 | |
| Fibre Channel | Number of total paths on a server | 2048 | |
| Fibre Channel | Number of HBAs of any type | 8 | |
| Fibre Channel | HBA ports | 16 | |
| Fibre Channel | Targets per HBA | 256 | |
| FCoE | Software FCoE adapters | 4 | |
| Common VMFS | Volume size | 64 TB | For VMFS3 volumes with 1 MB block size, the maximum volume size is 50 TB |
| Common VMFS | Volumes per host | 512 | |
| Common VMFS | Hosts per volume | 64 | |
| Common VMFS | Powered on virtual machines per VMFS volume | 2048 | |
| Common VMFS | Concurrent vMotion operations per VMFS volume | 128 | |
| VMFS3 | Raw device mapping size (virtual and physical) | 2 TB minus 512 bytes | |
| VMFS3 | Block size | 8 MB | |
| VMFS3 | File size (1 MB block size) | 256 GB | |
| VMFS3 | File size (2 MB block size) | 512 GB | |
| VMFS3 | File size (4 MB block size) | 1 TB | |
| VMFS3 | File size (8 MB block size) | 2 TB minus 512 bytes | |
| VMFS3 | Files per volume | Approximately 30720 | |
| VMFS5 / VMFS-6 | Raw Device Mapping size (virtual compatibility) | 62 TB | |
| VMFS5 / VMFS-6 | Raw Device Mapping size (physical compatibility) | 64 TB | |
| VMFS5 / VMFS-6 | Block size | 1 MB | 1MB is the default block size. Upgraded VMFS5 volumes inherit the VMFS3 block size value. |
| VMFS5 / VMFS-6 | File size | 62 TB | |
| VMFS5 / VMFS-6 | Files per volume | Approximately 130690 | |
| ESXi Host Maximums : Networking Maximums | |||
| Physical NICs | igbn 1 Gb Ethernet ports (Intel) | 16 | |
| Physical NICs | ntg3 1 Gb Ethernet ports (Broadcom) | 32 |
Recommended Configuration Maximums
VMware, Inc.
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| Maximum Type | Maximum | Recommended Maximum value | Description |
| Physical NICs | bnx2 1 Gb Ethernet ports (QLogic) | 16 | |
| Physical NICs | elxnet 10 Gb Ethernet ports (Emulex) | 8 | |
| Physical NICs | ixgbe 10 Gb Ethernet ports (Intel) | 16 | |
| Physical NICs | bnx2x 10 Gb Ethernet ports (QLogic) | 8 | |
| Physical NICs | Infiniband ports (refer to VMware Community Support) | N/A | Mellanox Technologies InfiniBand HCA device drivers are available directly from Mellanox Technologies. Go to the Mellanox Web site for information about support status of InfiniBand HCAs with ESXi. http:// www.mellanox.com |
| Physical NICs | Combination of 10 Gb and 1 Gb ethernet ports | Sixteen 10 GB and four 1 GB ports | |
| Physical NICs | nmlx4_en 40 Gb Ethernet Ports (Mellanox) | 4 | |
| Physical NICs | nmlx5_core 25 Gb Ethernet Ports (Mellanox) | 4 | |
| Physical NICs | nmlx5_core 50 Gb Ethernet Ports (Mellanox) | 4 | |
| Physical NICs | nnmlx5_core 100 Gb Ethernet Ports (Mellanox) | 4 | |
| Physical NICs | i40en 10 Gb Ethernet Ports (Intel) | 8 | |
| Physical NICs | i40en 40 Gb Ethernet Ports (Intel) | 4 | |
| Physical NICs | qedentv 25 Gb Ethernet Port (Qlogic) | 4 | |
| Physical NICs | qedentv 50 Gb Ethernet Port (Qlogic) | 4 | |
| Physical NICs | qedentv 100 Gb Ethernet Port (Qlogic) | 2 | |
| VMDirectPath limits | VMDirectPath PCI/PCIe devices per host | 8 | A virtual machine can support 6 devices, if 2 of them are Teradici devices. |
Recommended Configuration Maximums
VMware, Inc.
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| Maximum Type | Maximum | Recommended Maximum value | Description |
| SRIOV | SR-IOV Number of virtual functions per host | 1024 | SR-IOV supports up to 43 virtual functions on supported Intel NICs and up to 64 virtual functions on supported Emulex NICs. The actual number of virtual functions available for passthrough depends on the number of interrupt vectors required by each of them and on the hardware configuration of the host. Each ESXi host has a limited number of interrupt vectors. When the host boots, devices on the host such as storage controllers, physical network adapters, and USB controllers consume a subset of the total number of vectors. Depending upon the number of vectors these devices consume, the maximum number of potentially supported VFs could be reduced. |
| SRIOV | SR-IOV Number of 10 G pNICs per host | 8 | |
| SRIOV | VMDirectPath PCI/PCIe devices per virtual machine | 4 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Total virtual network switch ports per host (VDS and VSS ports) | 4096 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Total virtual network switch ports per host (VDS and VSS ports) | 4096 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Maximum active ports per host (VDS and VSS) | 1016 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Virtual network switch creation ports per standard switch | 4088 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Port groups per standard switch | 512 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Static/Dynamic port groups per distributed switch | 10000 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Ephemeral port groups per distributed switch | 1016 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Ports per distributed switch | 60000 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Distributed virtual network switch ports per vCenter | 60000 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Static/dynamic port groups per vCenter | 10000 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Ephemeral port groups per vCenter | 1016 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Distributed switches per vCenter | 128 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Distributed switches per host | 16 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | VSS portgroups per host | 1000 |
Recommended Configuration Maximums
VMware, Inc.
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| Maximum Type | Maximum | Recommended Maximum value | Description |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | LACP – LAGs per host | 64 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | LACP – uplink ports per LAG (Team) | 32 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | Hosts per distributed switch | 2000 | |
| vSphere Standard and Distributed Switch | NIOC resource pools per vDS | 64 | |
| ESXi Host Maximums : Cluster and Resource Pool Maximums | |||
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | Virtual Machines per cluster | 8000 | |
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | Virtual machines per hos | 1024 | |
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | Powered-on virtual machine config files per datastore in an HA cluster | 2048 | This limit does not apply to virtual disks. A virtual machine enabled with Fault Tolerance counts as two virtual machines. |
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | FT virtual machines per cluster | 98 | |
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | FT virtual machines vCPU per Cluster | 256 | |
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | Hosts per cluster | 64 | |
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | Resource pools per host | 1600 | |
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | Children per resource pool | 1600 | |
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | Children per resource pool | 8 | Additional 4 resource pools are used by system internals |
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | Resource pools per cluster | 1600 | Additional 4 resource pools are used by system internals |
| ESXi Host Maximums : ESXi Graphics Maximums | |||
| GPU based Graphics Maximums | Maximum number of shared physical GPUs | 16 | |
| GPU based Graphics Maximums | Maximum virtual graphics memory per virtual machine | 2GB | |
| vCenter Server Maximums | |||
| vCenter Server Scalability | Hosts per vCenter Server | 2000 | |
| vCenter Server Scalability | Powered-on virtual machines per vCenter Server | 25000 | |
| vCenter Server Scalability | Registered virtual machines per vCenter Server | 35000 | |
| vCenter Server Scalability | Linked vCenter Servers | 15 | |
| vCenter Server Scalability | Hosts in linked vCenter Servers | 4000 | |
| vCenter Server Scalability | Powered-on virtual machines in linked vCenter Servers | 30000 | |
| vCenter Server Scalability | Registered virtual machines in linked vCenter Servers | 50000 | |
| vCenter Server Scalability | Number of host per datacenter | 2000 |
Recommended Configuration Maximums
VMware, Inc.
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| Maximum Type | Maximum | Recommended Maximum value | Description |
| vCenter Server Scalability | MAC addresses per vCenter Server (using default VMware OUI) | 65536 | |
| vSphere Web Client User Interface | Concurrent vSphere Web Clients (Flex) connections to vCenter Server (Limit is applicable for both linked mode and per VC) | 180 | |
| vSphere Web Client User Interface | Maximum mixed vSphere Client (HTML5) + vSphere Web Client simultaneous connections per VC | 60 (30 Flex. 30 maximum HTML5) | |
| vSphere Web Client User Interface | Maximum supported inventory for vSphere Client (HTML5) | 10000 VMs. 1000 Hosts | |
| Concurrent operations | vMotion operations per host (1 Gb/s network) | 4 | |
| Concurrent operations | vMotion operations per host (10 Gb/s network) | 8 | |
| Concurrent operations | vMotion operations per datastore | 128 | |
| Concurrent operations | Storage vMotion operations per host | 2 | |
| Concurrent operations | Storage vMotion operations per datastore | 8 | |
| Concurrent operations | Non-vMotion provisioning operations per host | 8 | |
| vCenter Server Windows embedded/packaged vPostgres | Hosts (with embedded vPostgres database) | 20 | |
| vCenter Server Windows embedded/packaged vPostgres | Virtual machines (with embedded vPostgres database) | 200 | |
| Content Library | Total content library items per VC (across all libraries) | 2000 | |
| Content Library | Biggest content library item size | 1 TB | |
| Content Library | Total number of libraries per VC | 1000 | |
| Content Library | Total items per library | 1000 | |
| Content Library | Maximum number of concurrent sync operations on the published library’s VC | 16 | This limit is applicable to libraries published by vCenter Server and not to third party libraries. |
| Host Profile | Profile created | 500 | Limit is tested with hosts, powered on VMs and datastores. |
| Host Profile | Profile attached | 500 | Limit is tested with hosts, powered on VMs and datastores. |
| vCenter Server Maximums : Storage DRS | |||
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | Virtual disks per datastore cluster | 9000 | |
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | Datastores per datastore cluster | 64 | |
| Cluster (all clusters including HA and DRS) | Datastore clusters per vCenter | 256 |
Recommended Configuration Maximums
VMware, Inc.
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| Maximum Type | Maximum | Recommended Maximum value | Description |
| Platform Services Controller | |||
| vCenter Server Scalability | Maximum PSCs per vSphere Domain | 10 | |
| vCenter Server Scalability | Maximum PSCs per site, behind a load balancer | 4 | |
| vCenter Server Scalability | Maximum objects within a vSphere Domain (Users and Groups) | 1000000 | |
| vCenter Server Scalability | Maximum tolerance for time skew between PSC nodes | 5 minutes | |
| Identity Source | Maximum Active Directory or OpenLDAP Groups per User for best performance | 1015 | |
| VMCA/Certificate | Maximum number of subordinate Certificate Authority servers in the chain within VMware Certificate Authority | 6 | |
| VMCA/Certificate | Maximum cryptographic hash used for PSC Node certificate | 1 | |
| VMCA/Certificate | Maximum RSA Public Key length used for PSC Node certificate | 16384 | |
| vCenter Server Extensions : VMware vCenter Update Manager | |||
| Concurrent Operations | VMware Tools scan per ESXi host | 90 | |
| Concurrent Operations | VMware Tools upgrade per ESXi host | 30 | |
| Concurrent Operations | Virtual machine hardware scan per host | 90 | |
| Concurrent Operations | Virtual machine hardware upgrade per host | 30 | |
| Concurrent Operations | VMware Tools scan per VUM server | 200 | |
| Concurrent Operations | VMware Tools upgrade per VUM server | 200 | |
| Concurrent Operations | Virtual machine hardware scan per VUM server | 200 | |
| Concurrent Operations | Virtual machine hardware upgrade per VUM server | 200 | |
| Concurrent Operations | ESXi host scan per VUM server | 232 | |
| Concurrent Operations | ESXi host patch remediation per VUM server | 232 | |
| Concurrent Operations | ESXi host upgrade per VUM server | 232 | |
| vCenter Server Extensions : VMware vRealize Orchestrator | |||
| vCenter Orchestrator Maximums | Connected vCenter Server systems | 20 | |
| vCenter Orchestrator Maximums | Connected ESXi instances | 1280 | |
| vCenter Orchestrator Maximums | Connected virtual machines | 35000 | 15,000 per vRealize Orchestrator Cluster node. |
Recommended Configuration Maximums
VMware, Inc.
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| Maximum Type | Maximum | Recommended Maximum value | Description |
| vCenter Orchestrator Maximums | Concurrent running workflows | 300 | |
| VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache | |||
| Flash Read Cache Maximums | Virtual flash resource per host | 1 | |
| Flash Read Cache Maximums | Maximum cache for each virtual disk | 400 GB | |
| Flash Read Cache Maximums | Cumulative cache configured per host (for all virtual disks) | 2 TB | |
| Flash Read Cache Maximums | Virtual disk size | 16 TB | |
| Flash Read Cache Maximums | Virtual host swap cache size | 4 TB | |
| Flash Read Cache Maximums | Flash devices per virtual flash resource | 8 | |
| VMware vSAN | |||
| vSAN ESXi host | vSAN disk groups per host | 5 | |
| vSAN ESXi host | Magnetic disks per disk group | 7 | |
| vSAN ESXi host | SSD disks per disk group | 1 | |
| vSAN ESXi host | Spinning disks in all diskgroups per host | 35 | |
| vSAN ESXi host | Components per vSAN host | 9000 | |
| vSAN ESXi host | Cache tier maximum devices per host | 5 | |
| vSAN ESXi host | Capacity tier maximum devices per diskgroup | 7 | |
| vSAN ESXi host | Capacity tier maximum devices | 35 | |
| vSAN Cluster | Number of vSAN hosts in a cluster | 64 (Hybrid) 64 (All-Flash) | |
| vSAN Cluster | Number of datastores per cluster | 1 | |
| vSAN virtual machines | Virtual machines per host | 200 | |
| vSAN virtual machines | Virtual machines per cluster | 6000 | |
| vSAN virtual machines | Virtual machine virtual disk size | 62 TB | |
| vSAN virtual machines | Disk stripes per object | 12 | |
| vSAN virtual machines | Percentage of flash read cache reservation | 100 | |
| vSAN virtual machines | Failure to tolerate | 3 for VM virtual disk size <= 16 TB | |
| vSAN virtual machines | Percentage of object space reservation | 100 | |
| vSAN virtual machines | vSAN networks/physical network fabrics | 2 | |
| vSAN iSCSI Target | Number of iSCSI LUNs per Cluster | 1024 | |
| vSAN iSCSI Target | Number of iSCSI Targets per Cluster | 128 | |
| vSAN iSCSI Target | Number of iSCSI LUNs per Target | 256 | |
| vSAN iSCSI Target | Max iSCSI LUN size | 62 TB |
Recommended Configuration Maximums
VMware, Inc.
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| Maximum Type | Maximum | Recommended Maximum value | Description |
| vSAN iSCSI Target | Number of iSCSI sessions per Node | 128 | |
| vSAN iSCSI Target | iSCSI IO queue depth per Node | 4096 | |
| vSAN iSCSI Target | Number of outstanding writes per iSCSI LUN | 128 | |
| vSAN iSCSI Target | Number of outstanding IOs per iSCSI LUN | 256 | |
| vSAN iSCSI Target | Number of initiators who register PR key for a iSCSI LUN | 64 | |
| Virtual Volumes | |||
| Virtual Volumes | Data Virtual Volume Size | 62 TB | |
| Virtual Volumes | Number of Virtual Volumes bound to a host | 64000 | |
| Virtual Volumes | Number of PEs per host | 256 | |
| Virtual Volumes | Storage Container size | 2^64 | |
| Virtual Volumes | Storage Container per host | 256 | |
| Virtual Volumes | Maximum outstanding PE I/O operations | 128 | The outstanding PE I/O operations is configurable up to 4096. |
| Virtual Volumes | Configured VPs per host | 128 | |
| Virtual Volumes | Maximum configured VVol managed storage arrays per host | 64 | |
| Network I/O Control (NIOC) | |||
| NIOC | Number of resource pools | 10000 | |
| NIOC | Number of uplinks per vds | 32 | |
| NIOC | Number of uplinks per host | 32 | |
| NIOC | Number of vNIC per host | 5120 | |
| NIOC | Max pNIC bandwidth | Approximately 10 Gbits/sec for 10G pNIC | |
| Storage Policies | |||
| Storage Policies | Maximum number of virtual machine storage policies | 1024 | |
| Storage Policies | Maximum number of VASA providers | 1024 | |
| Storage Policies | Maximum number of rule sets in virtual machine storage policy | 16 | |
| Storage Policies | Maximum capabilities in virtual machine storage policy rule set | 64 | |
| Storage Policies | Maximum vSphere tags in virtual machine storage policy | 128 | |
| Managed Virtual Disks | |||
| Managed Virtual Disks | Maximum managed virtual disks | 10000 |