VMware vSphere 5 (ESXi 5) is a virtualization platform used for building cloud infrastructures. vSphere 5 represents a migration from the ESX architecture to the ESXi architecture. The ESX architecture consists of the virtualization kernel, also known as the vmkernel, and a management partition known as the console operating system (COS or service console). The COS allowed management interface into the ESX host. On the other hand, the ESXi architecture removes the Console OS so all the VMware agents run directly on the vmkernel. Infrastructure services are provided natively through modules included with the vmkernel. Authorized 3rd party modules such as hardware drivers and hardware monitoring components can run in vmkernel as well. Only modules with VMware's digital signature are allowed to run on the system. For the latest Dell | VMware documentation, please see the Reference section below. Below: ESX Capability Chart with ESX 4.1, ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.0.

For VMware's detailed comparison, please see KB article 1023990.

VMware vSphere 5 Layers & Services

VMware vSphere 5 and its services enumerate out as:

1. Infrastructure Services:

• Compute,
• Storage and
• Network components;

2. Application Services:

• Availability,
• Security and
• Scalability;

3. Management Services:

• the vSphere web client and
• the VMware vCenter Server Appliance.

Virtualization Infrastructure Layer

The virtualization layer consists of the ESXi hypervisor and incorporates the application services. VMwarevSpherevirtualizes the IT infrastructure consisting of servers, storage, and networks.These resources are aggregated and can be presented as a uniform set of elements in the virtual environment.

Management Layer

VMwarevCenter Serverprovides centralized management for datacenters. VMware vCenter Server provides a 1:Many view into the physical resources from multipleESXihosts and presents a central collection of flexible resources for the system administrator to provision to virtual machines in the virtual environment. VMware vCenter Servercomponents are user access control, core services, distributed services, plug-ins, and various interfaces.

Interface Layer

Users can access a VMwarevSpheredatacenter through the vSphere Client, through a Web browser withvSphere Web Client, through a command line interface, or terminal services.

VMware vSphere 5 Reference Links

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