VMware vCenter Server 2.5 Update 5 – includes Converter Enterprise
Latest Version: 2.5 Update 5 | 2009/07/10
The list of resolved issues is quite short this time. But a really important issue has been resolved and that’s why I recommend everyone who’s still running vCenter 2.5 to look in to this upgrade!
Support for High Consolidation in VMware HA Clusters – VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 5 includes significant performance and scalability improvements to VMware HA. Use VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 5 for environments with more than 35 virtual machines per host in an HA cluster.
For information on the ESX Server host settings required for this scalability improvement, see ESX Server host settings required for environments with up to 80 virtual machines per host in an HA Cluster (KB 1012002).
This is especially important for those with a high server consolidation rate or for instance for VDI. Make sure to read the KB article cause you will need to change several settings!
Vladan says
Is vCenter 2.5 gonna be still updated? I mean for sometimes still, but then, I thought that it might not and it will not be supported for ever…
With Microsoft there is certainly a limit in a support for their OS. See Windows 2000…..
Vladan
Jason Boche says
I am concerned. What VMware document tells us there was previously a limit of number of VMs per HA host? I’ve always gone by the Configuration Maximums document which said we can have 170 VMs per host. No mention is made that the number of VMs per HA host is significantly lower than 170. I hadn’t seen a VM per HA host restriction until vSphere where we’re limited to 40 VMs per host in clusters with more than 8 hosts.
AC says
From what I’ve heard, there has always been a “soft limit” on the number of VMs per host when using them in an HA cluster. My guess is they just got around to documenting it with vSphere. Our SE told us that it is essentially a soft limit in vSphere as well. But, what I’m really curious about is whether or not there are any similar custom settings that can be made in vSphere 4.0 to go higher than that mysterious 40 VMs per host limit when using HA? Or is that coming with update 1?
Bouke Groenescheij says
@Jason @AC, that was exactly my thought when I was reading this article. Apparently there are some ‘hard/soft’ limits in HA which was never published, and I’m concerned which other ‘hard/soft’ limits we don’t know about.