VMware ESXi is a bare-metal hypervisor that installs directly onto server hardware, allowing you to consolidate multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical host. ESXi 7.x is part of the vSphere 7.0 family, which introduced a number of major architectural changes—including the move away from legacy VMFS datastores and the integration of native Kubernetes support via Tanzu.
| Edition | Best for | Key features | |--------|---------|---------------| | | Home labs, single host, non-production | Max 8 vCPUs per VM, no vCenter management, no backup APIs, no vMotion | | vSphere Standard | Small to mid-sized business | Central management via vCenter, live migration (vMotion), high availability (HA) | | vSphere Enterprise Plus | Large data centers | Distributed switch, host profiles, NIOC, SIOC, vDS, and Tanzu Kubernetes Grid | | Evaluation (60-day) | Testing full features | All Enterprise Plus features, no cost for 60 days |
https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads → Select VMware vSphere 7.0 → VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 7.0