VMware ESXi (formerly known as ESX) is a type-1 hypervisor developed by VMware for deploying and serving virtual computers. It is a bare-metal hypervisor, meaning it runs directly on the physical hardware of the host machine without requiring an underlying operating system. ESXi allows multiple virtual machines (VMs) to run concurrently on a single physical server, enabling efficient utilization of hardware resources and facilitating server consolidation.
Key features of VMware ESXi include:
- High Performance: ESXi is optimized for performance and efficiency, allowing for high consolidation ratios and minimal overhead.
- Scalability: It can scale from small businesses to large enterprise environments, supporting hundreds of virtual machines on a single host.
- Reliability: ESXi is known for its stability and reliability, providing features such as VMotion for live migration of virtual machines between hosts without downtime.
- Resource Management: It offers features like Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) and Distributed Power Management (DPM) for efficient resource allocation and power management across hosts in a cluster.
- Security: ESXi includes various security features such as lockdown mode, virtual machine encryption, and secure boot to protect the hypervisor and virtual machines from unauthorized access and tampering.
- Management Tools: VMware provides vCenter Server for centralized management of ESXi hosts and virtual machines, allowing administrators to efficiently provision, monitor, and manage their virtual infrastructure.
