ESX Virtualization

VMware ESXi, vSphere, VMware Backup, Hyper-V... how-to, videos....

Nakivo Backup and Replication - #1 Backup solution for Virtual, physical, cloud, NAS and SaaS

Menu
  • Certification
      • VCP-DCV vSphere 8
          • vcp2024-125.
        • Close
    • Close
  • VMware
    • Configuration Maximums
    • vSphere
      • vSphere 8.0
      • vSphere 7.0
      • vSphere 6.7
      • vSphere 6.5
      • vSphere 6.0
      • Close
    • VMworld
      • VMware EXPLORE 2024
      • VMware EXPLORE 2023
      • VMware EXPLORE 2022
      • VMworld 2019
      • VMworld 2018
      • VMworld 2017
      • VMworld 2016
      • VMworld 2015
      • VMworld 2014
      • VMworld 2013
      • VMworld 2012
      • VMworld 2011
      • Close
    • Close
  • Microsoft
    • Windows Server 2012
    • Windows Server 2016
    • Windows Server 2019
    • Close
  • Categories
    • Tips – VMware, Microsoft and General IT tips and definitions, What is this?, How this works?
    • Server Virtualization – VMware ESXi, ESXi Free Hypervizor, VMware vSphere Server Virtualization, VMware Cloud and Datacenter Virtualization
    • Backup – Virtualization Backup Solutions, VMware vSphere Backup and ESXi backup solutions.
    • Desktop Virtualization – Desktop Virtualization, VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, VMware Horizon View, tips and tutorials
    • How To – ESXi Tutorials, IT and virtualization tutorials, VMware ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x and VMware vSphere. VMware Workstation and other IT tutorials.
    • Free – Free virtualization utilities, ESXi Free, Monitoring and free backup utilities for ESXi and Hyper-V. Free IT tools.
    • Videos – VMware Virtualization Videos, VMware ESXi Videos, ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x tips and videos.
    • Home Lab
    • Reviews – Virtualization Software and reviews, Disaster and backup recovery software reviews. Virtual infrastructure monitoring software review.
    • Close
  • Partners
    • NAKIVO
    • StarWind
    • Zerto
    • Xorux
    • Close
  • This Web
    • News
    • ESXi Lab
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Archives
    • Disclaimer
    • PDFs and Books
    • Close
  • Free
  • Privacy policy

ESXi 5.5 free Version has no more hard limitations of 32GB of RAM

By Vladan SEGET | Last Updated: April 26, 2025

Shares

ESXi 5.5 free limitations has been lifted by VMware. VMware ESXi 5.5 Free version limitations to 32 GB of physical RAM only is gone! VMware has introduced the new enhanced version of VMware vSphere 5.5 yesterday during VMworld 2013 in SF. So this kind of information interests the whole virtualization ecosystem. But concerning virtualization at home, and all Home users, the IT enthusiasts, IT admins. Everyone using the Free version of ESXi, the hard limit of 32Gb of RAM on the Free ESXi 5.1 wasn't really a good thing.

Update: There is a free version of ESXi 6.0 available now. No physical CPU limit and no ram limit. 8 vCPU VMs can be used….

ESXi 5.5 Free version of VMware hypervisor is now available for download, but if you want to test the vSphere suite together with management server (vCenter) you'll need at least the Essential Kit. You can download 60 days trial through the link at the bottom of the article.

Now there is a nice change on that. Yes, the Free Version of ESXi 5.5 has no physical RAM limit. The free version is the one for which one you, after download, apply a free license key which locks some advanced features.

Free versions of ESXi were always very popular in the community. People were installing it at home as HTPCs, trying passthrough video cards, NICs directly to the VMs, providing the whole family with the benefit of virtualization and at the same time learning more about Virtualization through nested labs or so. For all those people, the fact that the PC or server has 32 Gb hard limit was always like a handicap.

vSphere 5.5 Windows ClientOn the virtual hardware version, the new ESXi 5.5 can be configured to run the VMs with 62Tb disks (with small caveat), it can leverage all the enhancements being made in Virtual Hardware version 10. Almost every configuration maximum has been doubled. Yes! If you haven't read yet, you can check my post VMware vSphere 5.5 – Storage enhancements and new configuration maximums.

  • 320 physical CPUs per host (160 in ESXi 5.1)
  • 4 TB of Memory (2 TB in ESXi 5.1)
  • 16 NUMA Nodes (8 in ESXi 5.1)
  • 4096 vCPUs can be allocated to VMs (2048 in ESXi 5.1)

But there are few caveats:

  • To create (or grow existing virtual disks), a vSphere Web client must be used. Not the Windows client.
  • When managing virtual hardware through vSphere Windows Client, there might be errors shown.

As a workaround for this of course you can download 60 days trial, install vCenter or vCSA, attach the host to vCenter, and do your changes (upgrade to the latest virtual hardware, grow the disks if you want to). But IMHO, for home labbing the need of 62TB disks is close to zero… The principal resource which gets exhausted first – is memory.

ESXi 5.5 Free version – The Features

  • Physical RAM restriction removed (ESXi 5.1 was limited to 32Gb per host – it was a hard limit)
  • 8 vCPU per VM limit (It's not often that one would need to run at home 8 vCPU VMs).

Virtual Hardware 10 improvements:

  • LSI SAS support for Solaris 11
  • Enablement for new CPU architectures
  • AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) support
  • SATA controller supports both virtual disk & CDROM on controller
  • ESXi, there is no SCSI CDROM support, only IDE
  • Mac OS X has stopped support for IDE, CDROM will require AHCI controller
  • Most guest OSes also support AHCI
  • Support 30 devices per controller, up to 4 controllers with total of 120 devices

Update: The other restrictions on Free ESXi, like the non writable APIs for having the possibility to use one of the backup software on the market, and do hot backups, are still valid. You can check out How-to Apply VMware Free License to VMware ESXi.

vSphere 5.5 Essentials Plus Versions

To go further, the first version after the free one, is vSphere Essentials. The only limit here is 6 CPU per bundle (so it's usually 3 hosts with 2 CPU each). No vRAM limit or entitlements. You can manage 3 hosts with vCenter server (bundled) and have a centralized management.

vSphere 5.5 essentialsThe vSphere Essentials or Essentials plus pricing remains, where the Essentials plus can be purchased in two ways:

  1. Without VSA (vSphere Storage Appliance) – $4495
  2. With VSA $4995

Concerning other higher end licensing offers, I'll do a separate post to detail all that. But the principal good news is for users willing to use more than 32 GB of RAM on Free vSphere ESXi hypervisor, and it's (after the product's availability) now possible.

vSphere 5.5 Release:

  • VMware vSphere 5.5 – Storage enhancements and new configuration maximums
  • vCD 5.5 – VMware vCloud Director 5.5 New and enhanced features
  • VMware VDP 5.5 and VDP Advanced – With a DR for VDP!
  • VMware vSphere 5.5 vFlash Read Cache with VFFS
  • VMware vSphere Replication 5.5 – what's new?
  • VMware VSAN introduced in vSphere 5.5 – How it works and what's the requirements?
  • VMware vSphere 5.5 Storage New Features
  • VMware vSphere 5.5 Application High Availability – AppHA
  • VMware vSphere 5.5 Networking New Features
  • VMware vSphere 5.5 Low Latency Applications Enhancements
  • ESXi 5.5 free Version has no more hard limitations of 32GB of RAM – this post
  • vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 (vCSA) – Installation and Configuration Video

How to run vSphere on Single PC with Limited resources?

vGet this free E-book I wrote for people wanting to built a nested lab on a PC with limited resources, or a laptop. An 8gigs of RAM is necessary with preference having a SSD in the machine as well. This nested vSphere lab runs two virtual ESXi hosts together with DC, vCenter all together with client VMs. You can follow the step-by-step guide which is in the book.

Download Free E-book

 

 
The download link will be emailed to you after you confirm your subscription. Please allow up to one business day for the e-mail to be validated, as it's for now a manual process. I hope that you'll enjoy it and it will be useful.
Shares
5/5 - (2 votes)

| Filed Under: Server Virtualization Tagged With: ESXi 5.5 Free

About Vladan SEGET

This website is maintained by Vladan SEGET. Vladan is as an Independent consultant, professional blogger, vExpert x16, Veeam Vanguard x9, VCAP-DCA/DCD, ESX Virtualization site has started as a simple bookmarking site, but quickly found a large following of readers and subscribers.

Connect on: Facebook. Feel free to network via Twitter @vladan.

Comments

  1. Dharshan says

    August 28, 2013 at 7:45 pm

    Is this a typo “4096 vCPUs can be allocated to VMs (2048 in ESXi 5.1)”

    I belive it should be for vRAM,

    I remember 64 vcpu is the max limit for virtual machine in vsphere 5.5

    • Dharshan says

      August 28, 2013 at 7:50 pm

      Got it 4096 virtual CPU per Host

  2. Paul Braren says

    August 29, 2013 at 6:09 am

    Very much looking forward to breaking past 32GB myself (in my home lab)!

  3. movi says

    September 2, 2013 at 2:14 am

    hey,

    my vmware esxi 5.1 hyperviser consume too much ram when i install windows server 2012..its the only server with no role while in vm it show 1 g.b
    on Esxi 5,1 it shows 6 to 7 gb but in vm it show 1 g.b.. i have install vmware tools also..
    any idea plz ?

    Regards

    • Vladan SEGET says

      September 2, 2013 at 5:13 pm

      If you assign for example 4Gb of RAM to your VM, it only consumes the 4GB of RAM at most.

      You can change the amount of RAM assigned to your VM (VM powered off) by right clicking the VM > “Edit Settings” in the VM.

      Hope it helps.

  4. Philip says

    September 12, 2013 at 7:33 pm

    I read all about no hard limit of 32 GB with the free edition of ESXi 5.5 Free version. But can anyone tell about the physical CPU’s. Is there als no limit anymore with ESXi 5.5 Free version?
    I want to use ESXi 5.5 Free version on a motherboard with 2 sockets, but the memory should be divided over the 2 CPU’s.

    • Vladan SEGET says

      September 12, 2013 at 10:25 pm

      If the ESXi 5.5 memory was announced to be lifted below the 32Gb limit, then a 2 CPU socket motherboard isn’t really an issue. I don’t see where you want to point with your question.

      • Philip says

        September 13, 2013 at 12:13 pm

        My motherboard has 2 CPU sockets with a maximum of 48GB.
        But to make use of 48GB, I have to put 2 CPU’s on the motherboard.
        Now with 1 CPU, I have 24GB. I can’t put more memory into it without a secound CPU.
        So therefor my question, is there a limitation in CPU sockets in the ESXi 5.5 Free version?

  5. dms says

    September 23, 2013 at 8:20 pm

    Would you mind filling in a bit more detail on

    “To create (or grow existing virtual disks), a vSphere Web client must be used. Not the Windows client.”

    Does this mean in 5.5 that if you created a new VM, you would not be able to create a disk for it using the windows client? I c.an live without making really big disks but I’d need to be able to create some typical 120G drives.

    • Vladan SEGET says

      September 23, 2013 at 8:35 pm

      use the Windows basée client to create VMs with hardware compatibility 9. (Not 10).

  6. Krasimir says

    September 24, 2013 at 2:35 pm

    Is it possible to add a host with ESXi 5.5 Free Version to vCenter Server?
    I think with earlier versions it was not possible – only licensed hosts.
    We have licensed cluster and a lab/test host.
    It will be great when I can administrate all hosts from one GUI

    • Vladan SEGET says

      September 24, 2013 at 6:10 pm

      The free version cannot be added, unfortunately.

      • John says

        October 1, 2013 at 5:06 pm

        I think (at least with 5.1 you could) you can during the 60 day or whatever trial period if you remove the free license. That said, it will probably be expired by the time you want to if the server is more than a couple of months old…

  7. esxi 5.5 explorer says

    October 7, 2013 at 1:27 am

    hi,

    thanks for posting this…. wanted to share my experience with this:

    my goal was to simply install the newest esxi free.

    i installed 5.5. i installed the vi client for windows that esxi’s server pointed me to. i made an account on vmware.com i registered for my esxi free license. i applied it to esxi with the vi client. i was able to make new vms with hardware version 8. i can change hard drive sizes.

    is this expected? i did not mess around with the eval license … is the issue that with the eval license you can actually make vms with a hardware version that you can’t manipulate after it expires? and so, if you want to go past 60 days, the lesson is: get your free license and then just do what you can?

    or am i in for a surprise in 60 days?

    • Vladan SEGET says

      October 7, 2013 at 8:25 am

      I think you’re missing few bits overall about vSphere.

      Basically if you’re using only the ESXi Free version, you can do anything you want with your VMs (change configs, add virtual hardware…..) during unlimited time period. The only thing is you can’t create or change VMs which uses vmx-10 (virtual hardware 10) – those are the VMs which can support 62 TB disks for example. Those VMs can only be modified (or created) via the vSphere Web client, which is present when you install vCenter server (management server) during a trial period, or if you pay for a license. The lowest packaging is vSphere Essentials and it’s around $500.

      Hope I cleared some of your doubts on that.

  8. Scott says

    June 13, 2014 at 2:46 am

    Wondering how/why anyone would put ESXi onto a PC, then put a VM on top of that for a HTPC? Anyone understand that part?

  9. Alok says

    September 9, 2014 at 11:59 pm

    What is the maximum physical RAM a host can use running 5.5,also does it differ from license to license I mean is there a difference from essential and essential plus an enterpise to enterprise plus ,does the max memory amount change if the license changes

    • Vladan SEGET says

      September 10, 2014 at 4:59 pm

      There is no limit on physical RAM any longer. I hope it answers your question.

  10. Jonathan says

    April 7, 2015 at 1:44 pm

    I heard rumour that ESXi Essentials Plus has lifted the 6 Core limit on the CPU – can anyone confirm this? I am trying to get confirmation from VMware themselves too. Thanks in advance.

  11. Lemon says

    May 8, 2015 at 1:59 pm

    Hello,

    You said Two physical CPUs per Host (Exi 6.0)

    Here in the specs they say :
    Number of cores per physical CPU: No limit
    Number of physical CPUs per host: No limit
    – See more at: https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/gettingstarted.html#sthash.Ix2k9QcY.dpuf

    Is this mean no physical CPU limit ?

    • Vladan SEGET says

      May 8, 2015 at 2:19 pm

      Thanks for the heads up. The post got corrected.

      Yes, you can have for example a quadri CPU server and run ESXi 6.0 free version on it. With limits we know…. No HA, vMotion, central management etc… But if you want to build a super powerfull lab workstation, it’s possible. However you’ll be limited with 8vCPU per VM…

      • Lemon says

        May 8, 2015 at 2:43 pm

        Thanks !

  12. Matic says

    July 9, 2015 at 11:09 pm

    I am still using ESXi 5.0, just got my new HW (32GB of ram with 6 cores Xeon and SSDs for sotrage) where I planned to upgrade to ESXi 6.0 free version, but as I am considering more and more it seems to me that it’s better to use 5.5 instead 6.0. In 6.0 I am still not able to use web client for free and we can not afford license for it, sincer we are small bussines.
    As I understand ESXi 5.5 allows me to use virutal hardware up to version 9 with vSphere client meanwhile 6.0 just up to version 8!? And there are seems to be also some other tricks in 6.0 which were not in 5.5.
    Kindly please for any your suggestions… I was searching out for any good comparission of 5.5 and 6.0 free version but could not find any… BIG tahnks for your help and for your great website!

Private Sponsors

Featured

  • Thinking about HCI? G2, an independent tech solutions peer review platform, has published its Winter 2023 Reports on Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) Solutions.
  • Zerto: One Platform for Disaster Recovery, Backup & Cloud Mobility: Try FREE Hands-On Labs Today!
Click to Become a Sponsor

Most Recent

  • Nakivo Backup and Replication v11.1 BETA adds more Proxmox friendly features
  • Vulnerability in your VMs – VMware Tools Update
  • FREE version of StarWind VSAN vs Trial of Full version
  • Commvault’s Innovations at RSA Conference 2025 San Francisco
  • VMware ESXi FREE is FREE again!
  • Installation of StarWind VSAN Plugin for vSphere
  • Protect Mixed environments with Nakivo Physical Machine recovery (bare metal)
  • No more FREE licenses of VMware vSphere for vExperts – What’s your options?
  • Tails – Your Private OS on USB Stick
  • StarWind V2V Converter Now has CLI

Get new posts by email:

 

 

 

 

Support us on Ko-Fi

 

 

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Sponsors

Free Trials

  • DC Scope for VMware vSphere – optimization, capacity planning, and cost management. Download FREE Trial Here.
  • Augmented Inline Deduplication, Altaro VM Backup v9 For #VMware and #Hyper-V – Grab your copy now download TRIAL.

VMware Engineer Jobs

VMware Engineer Jobs

YouTube

…

Find us on Facebook

ESX Virtualization

…

Copyright © 2025 ·Dynamik-Gen · Genesis Framework · Log in