Difference between VMware ESX and ESXi

Difference between VMware ESX and ESXi

It’s been a long debate that everyone has been asked by what is the difference between ESX and ESXi. Most of the admins would have asked this question during interviews and also asked by new learners of VMware virtualization. I decided to post on the topic to give architectural difference always as to compare the different level capabilities between ESX & ESXi along the tabular comparison to explain the difference between VMware ESX and ESXi. Even though ESX is no more available, I thought it would be helpful especially for the new administrators to understand the architectural difference between VMware ESX and ESXi.

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What is VMware ESX ?

ESX (Elastic Sky X) is the VMware’s enterprise server virtualization platform. In ESX, VMkernel is the virtualization kernel which is managed by a console operating system which is also called as Service console. Which is Linux based and its main purpose is it to provide a Management interface for the host and lot of management agents and other third-party software agents are installed on the service console to provide the functionalists like hardware management and monitoring of ESX hypervisor.

   

What is VMware ESXi?

ESXi (Elastic sky X Integrated) is also the VMware’s enterprise server virtualization platform. In ESXi, Service console is removed. All the VMware related agents and third party agents such as management and monitoring agents can also run directly on the VMkernel. ESXi is a ultra-thin architecture which is highly reliable and its small code-base allows it to be more secure with fewer codes to patch. ESXi uses Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) instead of a service console to perform management of ESXi server. ESXi installation will happen very quickly as compared to ESX installation.

Graphics Thanks to VMware

Difference between VMware ESX and ESXi

 ESX 4.1 is the last version availability of ESX server. After vSphere 5, only ESXi is available.  This comparison based out of the VMware Article. Below table explains the Difference between VMware ESX and ESXi in a comparative way.

Capability

ESX

ESXi

Service Console

Present

Removed

Troubleshooting performed via

Service Console

ESXi Shell

Active Director Authentication

Enabled

Enabled

Secure Syslog

Not Supported

Supported

Management Network

Service Console Interface

VMKernel Interface

Jumbo Frames

Supported

Supported

Hardware Montioring

3 rd Party agents installed in Service console

Via CIM Providers

Boot from SAN

Supported in ESX

Supported in ESXi

Software patches and updates

Needed as similar to Linux operation system

Few patches because of small footprint and more secure

vSphere Web Access

Only experimental

Full management capability via vSphere web client

Locked Down Mode

Not present

Present. Lockdown mode prevents remote users to log into the host

Scripted Installtion

Supported

Supported

vMA Support

Yes

Yes

Major Administration command-line Command

esxcfg-

esxcli

Rapid deployment via Auto Deploy

Not supported

Supported

Custom Image creation

Not supported

Supported

VMkernel Network Used for

vMotion, Fault Tolerance, Storage Connectivity

Management Network, vMotion, Fault Tolerance, Storage Connectivity, ISCSI port binding