DATA SHEET

VMware vSphere
Version Comparison

Across versions
VMWARE vSPHERE® VERSION
KEY FEATURES/
CAPABILITIES 6.5 6.7 71

VMWARE vSPHERE® 7 WITH VMWARE TANZU™2

(Available through the Tanzu Basic Edition and vSphere 7 Update 1 release)
Application focused •
management

VMware Tanzu® •
Kubernetes Grid™ Service
for vSphere

vSphere Pod Service Requires NSX-T

currently
Storage Service •

Network Service •

Registry Service Requires NSX-T

currently
Network Load Balancing •

VM Service •

VM Service support for •

GPU
GPU accelerated VMware •
Tanzu® Kubernetes Grid™
cluster

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VMware vSphere Version Comparison

KEY FEATURES/
CAPABILITIES 6.5 6.7 71

VM MOBILITY AND MANAGEMENT

vSphere vMotion® • • •

vSphere Storage • • •
vMotion®

Content library • • •

Cross-vSwitch vMotion • • •

Cross-vCenter® vMotion3 • • •

Long-distance vMotion • • •

Cross-cloud vMotion/ • • •
hot migration4

Cross-vCenter mixed- • • •
version vMotion4

Cross-cloud cold • • •
migration4

Per-virtual machine (VM) • •

enhanced vMotion
compatibility

vMotion for Multi- •

Instance GPUs (MIG)

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VMware vSphere Version Comparison

KEY FEATURES/
CAPABILITIES 6.5 6.7 71

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

vSphere Distributed • • •
Resource Scheduler™
(DRS) – for compute
and memory

vSphere Enhanced DRS •

vSphere Storage DRS™ • • •

vSphere Storage • • •
I/O Control

vSphere Network • • •
I/O Control

Network-aware DRS • •

Assignable hardware •
support for vGPU and
vSphere DirectPath I/O™
initial placement

Initial workload •
placement for Multi-
Instance GPUs (MIG)

AVAILABILITY

Fault tolerance 4 vCPU 8 vCPU 8 vCPU

vSphere Replication™ • • •

High availability (HA) VM • • •

component protection

Orchestrated HA restart • • •

Proactive HA • • •

vCenter Server® HA3 • • •

vSphere HA for PMEM •

workloads

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VMware vSphere Version Comparison

KEY FEATURES/
CAPABILITIES 6.5 6.7 71

STORAGE

vSphere Virtual • • •
Volumes™

Storage policy-based • • •
management

NFS 4.1 support • • •

Automated UNMAP • • •

Support for 4K native • •

storage

SECURITY

Multifactor authentication • • •

vSphere security • • •
hardening and
compliance

VM encryption • • •

Secure boot • • •

Audit quality logging • • •

Cross-vCenter • •
encrypted vMotion

Support for TPM 2.0 • •

Virtual TPM 2.0 • •

Support for Microsoft • •

virtualization-based
security (VBS), including
Credential Guard

FIPS 140-2 validated • •

vSphere Trust Authority™ •

Identity federation •
with Active Directory
Federation Services

vSphere Native Key •

Provider

Confidential •
containers with AMD
SEV-ES

Simplified NSX •
security setup from
vSphere Client *

* Requires NSX-T version 3.2 or later

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VMware vSphere Version Comparison

KEY FEATURES/
CAPABILITIES 6.5 6.7 71

ENHANCED APPLICATION SUPPORT

VMware Instant Clone • • •

NVIDIA vGPU • • •

vSphere Integrated • • •
OpenStack

vSphere Integrated • • •
Containers™

vMotion support for • •

NVIDIA vGPU

vSphere Persistent • •
Memory™

Support for memory • •

mapping for 1GB page
sizes

Support for RoCE v2 • •

iSCSI extension for RDMA • •

(iSER)

Support for RDMA • •

InfiniBand

vSphere Bitfusion (Requires add- (Requires add-

on)4 on)4

NVIDIA Multi-Instance GPU •

(MIG)

vMotion for Multi- •

Instance GPUs (MIG)

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VMware vSphere Version Comparison

KEY FEATURES/
CAPABILITIES 6.5 6.7 71

ADMINISTRATION

vCenter Server • • •
Appliance™

Enhanced Linked Mode • • •

Certificate management • • •

Migration to vCenter • • •
Server Appliance

vCenter Server Hybrid • • •

Linked Mode5

vCenter Server backup • • •

and restore6

HTML5-based vSphere • • •
Client

REST-based APIs for • • •

vCenter Server
management

Enhanced Linked Mode •5 • •

for vCenter Server
Appliance with
Embedded Platform
Services Controller™

Single reboot upgrades • •

vSphere Quick Boot™ • •

vCenter Server Appliance • •

backup with built-in
scheduler and retention5

vSphere Lifecycle •
Manager™

vCenter Server •
update planner

vCenter Server profiles •

vSphere Ideas •

Desired image seeding •

ESXi suspend-to-
•
memory

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VMware vSphere Version Comparison

KEY SCALE METRICS:

MAXIMUMS 6.5 6.7 71

Host per cluster 64 64 96

(Requires vSphere
7U1)
VMs per cluster 8,000 8,000 8,000

Hosts per VMware 2,000 2,000 2,500

vCenter Server

Powered-on VMs per 25K 25K 30K

vCenter Server

Hosts for 15 linked 5K 5K 15K

vCenter Servers

CPUs per host 576 768 768

RAM per host 12TB 16TB 16TB

VMs per host 1,024 1,024 1,024

vCPUs per VM 128 128 128

vRAM per VM 6TB 6TB 6TB

Non-volatile memory 1TB 1TB

per host

Non-volatile memory 1TB 1TB

per VM

Maximum vCenter 200ms 250ms

Server request latency

1 The End of General Support for vSphere 6.0 was March 12, 2020 per KB66977. To maintain your full
level of support and subscription services, VMware recommends upgrading to the latest release of
vSphere.
2 vSphere with Tanzu is available through the Tanzu Basic edition. Pre-requirements for ‘vSphere with Tanzu’
capabilities are that customers already have the vSphere Enterprise plus edition, and that they have upgraded to at
least vSphere 7 Update 1.
3 Compatible with vSphere 6.0, U1, U2 and U3 for vMotion between same versions. Backwards compatible with
vSphere 6.0 U3+ and vSphere 6.5 U1+.
4 vSphere Bitfusion is available through a new add-on for all Enterprise plus customers. Visit the vSphere pricing
and packaging whitepaper for more details about the add-on for vSphere Bitfusion.
5 Backwards compatible with vSphere 6.0 U3+ on-premises and with vSphere 6.5 on premises. Compatible with
vSphere 6.5 U2+ on-premises.
6 For vCenter Server Appliance only.

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