Recommended Configuration

Maximums

vSphere 6.5
Updated on February 12, 2018
 Recommended Configuration Maximums

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 Recommended Configuration Maximums

This Configuration Maximums document provides the recommended configuration limits for VMware
products.When you configure, deploy and operate your virtual and physical equipment, it is highly
recommended you stay at or below the maximums supported by your product.The limits presented in the
document are tested, recommended limits, and are fully supported by VMware.

Disclaimer: The limits can be affected by other factors, such as hardware dependencies. For more information about the
supported hardware, see the appropriate hardware compatibility guide.It might not be possible to maximize all configuration
settings and expect your desired outcome.To ensure that you do not exceed supported configurations for your environment,
consult individual solution limits.The recommended configuration maximums do not represent the theoretical possibilities of
your product.

VMware, Inc.
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Maximum Type
Virtual Machine Maximums
Compute
Memory
Memory
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Storage Virtual Adapters and
Devices
Networking Virtual Devices
Networking Virtual Devices
Virtual Peripheral Ports
Virtual Peripheral Ports
Virtual Peripheral Ports
Virtual Peripheral Ports
VMware, Inc.
Recommended Configuration Maximums
Maximum Recommended Maximum Description
value
Virtual CPUs per virtual 128
machine (Virtual SMP)
RAM per virtual machine 6128 GB
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
Virtual SCSI adapters per 4
virtual machine
Virtual SCSI targets per 15 Any combination of disk or
virtual SCSI adapter VMDirectPath SCSI target.
Virtual SCSI targets per 60
virtual machine
Virtual NVMe adapters per 4
virtual machine
Virtual NVMe targets per 15
virtual SCSI adapter
Virtual NVMe targets per 60
virtual machine
Virtual disk size 62 TB
IDE controllers per virtual 1 Supports two channels
machine (primary and secondary) each
with a master and slave
device.
IDE devices per virtual 4 Devices can be either CD-
machine ROM or disk.
IDE CDROM devices per 4
virtual machine
Floppy controllers per virtual 1
machine
Floppy devices per virtual 2 BIOS is configured for one
machine floppy device.
Virtual SATA adapters per 4
virtual machine
Virtual SATA devices per 30 Devices can be either CD-
virtual SATA adapter ROM or disk
Virtual NICs per virtual 10 Any combination of
machine supported virtual NICs
Virtual NICs per virtual 1
machine
USB host controllers per 1 USB 1.x, 2.x and 3.x
virtual machine 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 20 Guest operating systems
virtual machine might have lower limits than
allowed by vSphere.
Parallel ports per virtual 3
machine
Serial ports per virtual 32
machine
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 Recommended Configuration Maximums

Maximum Type Maximum Recommended Maximum Description

value
Miscellaneous Concurrent remote console 40
connections to a virtual
machine
Miscellaneous Video memory per virtual 2 GB
machine
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 4
machine
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 Maximum RAM per host 12 TB 12 TB is supported on

Maximums 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 Number of swap files 1 per virtual machine
Maximums
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 4
HBA initiator ports per server
iSCSI Physical Cavium (Qlogic) 10 Gb iSCSI 4
HBA initiator ports per server
iSCSI Physical NICs that can be associated 8
or port bound with the
software iSCSI stack per
server
iSCSI Physical Number of total paths on a 2048
server
iSCSI Physical Number of paths to a LUN 8
(software iSCSI and hardware
iSCSI)
iSCSI Physical Cavium (Qlogic) 1 Gb iSCSI 64
HBA targets per adapter port

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 Recommended Configuration Maximums

Maximum Type Maximum Recommended Maximum Description

value
iSCSI Physical Cavium (Qlogic)10 Gb iSCSI 128
HBA targets per adapter port
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 2048
server
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 2048
per VMFS volume
Common VMFS Concurrent vMotion 128
operations per VMFS volume
VMFS3 Raw device mapping size 2 TB minus 512 bytes
(virtual and physical)
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 62 TB
(virtual compatibility)
VMFS5 / VMFS-6 Raw Device Mapping size 64 TB
(physical compatibility)
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 16

(Intel)
Physical NICs ntg3 1 Gb Ethernet ports 32
(Broadcom)

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 Recommended Configuration Maximums

Maximum Type Maximum Recommended Maximum Description

value
Physical NICs bnx2 1 Gb Ethernet ports 16
(QLogic)
Physical NICs elxnet 10 Gb Ethernet ports 8
(Emulex)
Physical NICs ixgbe 10 Gb Ethernet ports 16
(Intel)
Physical NICs bnx2x 10 Gb Ethernet ports 8
(QLogic)
Physical NICs Infiniband ports (refer to N/A Mellanox Technologies
VMware Community Support) 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 Sixteen 10 GB and four 1 GB
Gb ethernet ports ports
Physical NICs nmlx4_en 40 Gb Ethernet 4
Ports (Mellanox)
Physical NICs nmlx5_core 25 Gb Ethernet 4
Ports (Mellanox)
Physical NICs nmlx5_core 50 Gb Ethernet 4
Ports (Mellanox)
Physical NICs nnmlx5_core 100 Gb Ethernet 4
Ports (Mellanox)
Physical NICs i40en 10 Gb Ethernet Ports 8
(Intel)
Physical NICs i40en 40 Gb Ethernet Ports 4
(Intel)
Physical NICs qedentv 25 Gb Ethernet Port 4
(Qlogic)
Physical NICs qedentv 50 Gb Ethernet Port 4
(Qlogic)
Physical NICs qedentv 100 Gb Ethernet Port 2
(Qlogic)
VMDirectPath limits VMDirectPath PCI/PCIe 8 A virtual machine can support
devices per host 6 devices, if 2 of them are
Teradici devices.

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 Recommended Configuration Maximums
Maximum Type Maximum
SRIOV SR-IOV Number of virtual
functions per host
SRIOV SR-IOV Number of 10 G
pNICs per host
SRIOV VMDirectPath PCI/PCIe
devices per virtual machine
vSphere Standard and Total virtual network switch
Distributed Switch ports per host (VDS and VSS
ports)
vSphere Standard and Total virtual network switch
Distributed Switch ports per host (VDS and VSS
ports)
vSphere Standard and Maximum active ports per
Distributed Switch host (VDS and VSS)
vSphere Standard and Virtual network switch
Distributed Switch creation ports per standard
switch
vSphere Standard and Port groups per standard
Distributed Switch switch
vSphere Standard and Static/Dynamic port groups
Distributed Switch per distributed switch
vSphere Standard and Ephemeral port groups per
Distributed Switch distributed switch
vSphere Standard and Ports per distributed switch
Distributed Switch
vSphere Standard and Distributed virtual network
Distributed Switch switch ports per vCenter
vSphere Standard and Static/dynamic port groups
Distributed Switch per vCenter
vSphere Standard and Ephemeral port groups per
Distributed Switch vCenter
vSphere Standard and Distributed switches per
Distributed Switch vCenter
vSphere Standard and Distributed switches per host
Distributed Switch
vSphere Standard and VSS portgroups per host
Distributed Switch
VMware, Inc.
Recommended Maximum Description
value
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.
8
4
4096
4096
1016
4088
512
10000
1016
60000
60000
10000
1016
128
16
1000
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Maximum Type
vSphere Standard and
Distributed Switch
vSphere Standard and
Distributed Switch
vSphere Standard and
Distributed Switch
vSphere Standard and
Distributed Switch
ESXi Host Maximums : Cluster and Resource Pool Maximums
Cluster (all clusters including
HA and DRS)
Cluster (all clusters including
HA and DRS)
Cluster (all clusters including
HA and DRS)
Cluster (all clusters including
HA and DRS)
Cluster (all clusters including
HA and DRS)
Cluster (all clusters including
HA and DRS)
Cluster (all clusters including
HA and DRS)
Cluster (all clusters including
HA and DRS)
Cluster (all clusters including
HA and DRS)
Cluster (all clusters including
HA and DRS)
ESXi Host Maximums : ESXi Graphics Maximums
GPU based Graphics
Maximums
GPU based Graphics
Maximums
vCenter Server Maximums
vCenter Server Scalability
vCenter Server Scalability
vCenter Server Scalability
vCenter Server Scalability
vCenter Server Scalability
vCenter Server Scalability
vCenter Server Scalability
vCenter Server Scalability
VMware, Inc.
Recommended Configuration Maximums
Maximum Recommended Maximum Description
value
LACP - LAGs per host 64
LACP - uplink ports per LAG 32
(Team)
Hosts per distributed switch 2000
NIOC resource pools per vDS 64
Virtual Machines per cluster 8000
Virtual machines per hos 1024
Powered-on virtual machine 2048 This limit does not apply to
config files per datastore in virtual disks. A virtual
an HA cluster machine enabled with Fault
Tolerance counts as two
virtual machines.
FT virtual machines per 98
cluster
FT virtual machines vCPU per 256
Cluster
Hosts per cluster 64
Resource pools per host 1600
Children per resource pool 1600
Children per resource pool 8 Additional 4 resource pools
are used by system internals
Resource pools per cluster 1600 Additional 4 resource pools
are used by system internals
Maximum number of shared 16
physical GPUs
Maximum virtual graphics 2GB
memory per virtual machine
Hosts per vCenter Server 2000
Powered-on virtual machines 25000
per vCenter Server
Registered virtual machines 35000
per vCenter Server
Linked vCenter Servers 15
Hosts in linked vCenter 4000
Servers
Powered-on virtual machines 30000
in linked vCenter Servers
Registered virtual machines 50000
in linked vCenter Servers
Number of host per 2000
datacenter
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 Recommended Configuration Maximums

Maximum Type Maximum Recommended Maximum Description

vCenter Server Scalability
vSphere Web Client User
Interface
vSphere Web Client User
Interface
vSphere Web Client User
Interface
Concurrent operations
Concurrent operations
Concurrent operations
Concurrent operations
Concurrent operations
Concurrent operations
vCenter Server Windows
embedded/packaged
vPostgres
vCenter Server Windows
embedded/packaged
vPostgres
Content Library
Content Library
Content Library
Content Library
Content Library
Host Profile
Host Profile
vCenter Server Maximums : Storage DRS
value
MAC addresses per vCenter 65536
Server (using default VMware
OUI)
Concurrent vSphere Web 180
Clients (Flex) connections to
vCenter Server (Limit is
applicable for both linked
mode and per VC)
Maximum mixed vSphere 60 (30 Flex. 30 maximum
Client (HTML5) + vSphere HTML5)
Web Client simultaneous
connections per VC
Maximum supported 10000 VMs. 1000 Hosts
inventory for vSphere Client
(HTML5)
vMotion operations per host 4
(1 Gb/s network)
vMotion operations per host 8
(10 Gb/s network)
vMotion operations per 128
datastore
Storage vMotion operations 2
per host
Storage vMotion operations 8
per datastore
Non-vMotion provisioning 8
operations per host
Hosts (with embedded 20
vPostgres database)
Virtual machines (with 200
embedded vPostgres
database)
Total content library items per 2000
VC (across all libraries)
Biggest content library item 1 TB
size
Total number of libraries per 1000
VC
Total items per library 1000
Maximum number of 16 This limit is applicable to
concurrent sync operations libraries published by vCenter
on the published library's VC Server and not to third party
libraries.
Profile created 500 Limit is tested with hosts,
powered on VMs and
datastores.
Profile attached 500 Limit is tested with hosts,
powered on VMs and
datastores.

Cluster (all clusters including Virtual disks per datastore 9000

HA and DRS) cluster
Cluster (all clusters including Datastores per datastore 64
HA and DRS) cluster
Cluster (all clusters including Datastore clusters per 256
HA and DRS) vCenter

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 Recommended Configuration Maximums

Maximum Type Maximum Recommended Maximum Description

value
Platform Services Controller

vCenter Server Scalability Maximum PSCs per vSphere 10

vCenter Server Scalability
vCenter Server Scalability
vCenter Server Scalability
Identity Source
VMCA/Certificate
VMCA/Certificate
VMCA/Certificate
vCenter Server Extensions : VMware vCenter Update Manager
Domain
Maximum PSCs per site, 4
behind a load balancer
Maximum objects within a 1000000
vSphere Domain (Users and
Groups)
Maximum tolerance for time 5 minutes
skew between PSC nodes
Maximum Active Directory or 1015
OpenLDAP Groups per User
for best performance
Maximum number of 6
subordinate Certificate
Authority servers in the chain
within VMware Certificate
Authority
Maximum cryptographic hash 1
used for PSC Node certificate
Maximum RSA Public Key 16384
length used for PSC Node
certificate

Concurrent Operations VMware Tools scan per ESXi 90

host
Concurrent Operations VMware Tools upgrade per 30
ESXi host
Concurrent Operations Virtual machine hardware 90
scan per host
Concurrent Operations Virtual machine hardware 30
upgrade per host
Concurrent Operations VMware Tools scan per VUM 200
server
Concurrent Operations VMware Tools upgrade per 200
VUM server
Concurrent Operations Virtual machine hardware 200
scan per VUM server
Concurrent Operations Virtual machine hardware 200
upgrade per VUM server
Concurrent Operations ESXi host scan per VUM 232
server
Concurrent Operations ESXi host patch remediation 232
per VUM server
Concurrent Operations ESXi host upgrade per VUM 232
server
vCenter Server Extensions : VMware vRealize Orchestrator

vCenter Orchestrator Connected vCenter Server 20

Maximums systems
vCenter Orchestrator Connected ESXi instances 1280
Maximums
vCenter Orchestrator Connected virtual machines 35000 15,000 per vRealize
Maximums Orchestrator Cluster node.

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 Recommended Configuration Maximums

Maximum Type Maximum Recommended Maximum Description

value
vCenter Orchestrator Concurrent running 300
Maximums workflows
VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache

Flash Read Cache Maximums Virtual flash resource per 1

host
Flash Read Cache Maximums Maximum cache for each 400 GB
virtual disk
Flash Read Cache Maximums Cumulative cache configured 2 TB
per host (for all virtual disks)
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 8
resource
VMware vSAN

vSAN ESXi host vSAN disk groups per host 5

vSAN ESXi host Magnetic disks per disk 7
group
vSAN ESXi host SSD disks per disk group 1
vSAN ESXi host Spinning disks in all 35
diskgroups per host
vSAN ESXi host Components per vSAN host 9000
vSAN ESXi host Cache tier maximum devices 5
per host
vSAN ESXi host Capacity tier maximum 7
devices per diskgroup
vSAN ESXi host Capacity tier maximum 35
devices
vSAN Cluster Number of vSAN hosts in a 64 (Hybrid) 64 (All-Flash)
cluster
vSAN Cluster Number of datastores per 1
cluster
vSAN virtual machines Virtual machines per host 200
vSAN virtual machines Virtual machines per cluster 6000
vSAN virtual machines Virtual machine virtual disk 62 TB
size
vSAN virtual machines Disk stripes per object 12
vSAN virtual machines Percentage of flash read 100
cache reservation
vSAN virtual machines Failure to tolerate 3 for VM virtual disk size <=
16 TB
vSAN virtual machines Percentage of object space 100
reservation
vSAN virtual machines vSAN networks/physical 2
network fabrics
vSAN iSCSI Target Number of iSCSI LUNs per 1024
Cluster
vSAN iSCSI Target Number of iSCSI Targets per 128
Cluster
vSAN iSCSI Target Number of iSCSI LUNs per 256
Target
vSAN iSCSI Target Max iSCSI LUN size 62 TB

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 Recommended Configuration Maximums

Maximum Type Maximum Recommended Maximum Description

value
vSAN iSCSI Target Number of iSCSI sessions per 128
Node
vSAN iSCSI Target iSCSI IO queue depth per 4096
Node
vSAN iSCSI Target Number of outstanding writes 128
per iSCSI LUN
vSAN iSCSI Target Number of outstanding IOs 256
per iSCSI LUN
vSAN iSCSI Target Number of initiators who 64
register PR key for a iSCSI
LUN
Virtual Volumes

Virtual Volumes Data Virtual Volume Size 62 TB

Virtual Volumes Number of Virtual Volumes 64000
bound to a host
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 128 The outstanding PE I/O
operations operations is configurable up
to 4096.
Virtual Volumes Configured VPs per host 128
Virtual Volumes Maximum configured VVol 64
managed storage arrays per
host
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 1024

machine storage policies
Storage Policies Maximum number of VASA 1024
providers
Storage Policies Maximum number of rule 16
sets in virtual machine
storage policy
Storage Policies Maximum capabilities in 64
virtual machine storage
policy rule set
Storage Policies Maximum vSphere tags in 128
virtual machine storage
policy
Managed Virtual Disks

Managed Virtual Disks Maximum managed virtual 10000

disks

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