VMware 3.5

VMware ESX/ESXi Update 3 released

VMware has released Update 3 for ESX/ESXi.

This new release of ESX/ESXi 3.5 comes with the following enhancements:

  • Increase number of vCPUs per Core Limit (from 8 to 20)
  • New supported servers, NICs and storage IO controllers
  • New supported Guest Operating Systems

… and many more improvements and bug fixes.

Please refer to the product release notes for the details on improvements and bug fixes. These
can be found at:

ESX Server 3.5 Update 3 Release Notes

ESXi Server 3.5 Update 3 Embedded Release Notes

ESXi Server 3.5 Update 3 Installable Release Notes

VMware ESX 3.5 Update 3 is available for download at: http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/.

Choosing between SQL 2005 Express or SQL standard/Enterprise for the VC database

VMware VirtualCenter uses standard the Micrososft SQL Express 2005 database. The statement of VMware is:

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express is intended to be used for small deployments of up to 5 hosts and 50 virtual machines

Microsoft SQL 2005 Expresss supports 1 CPU, 1 GB of RAM and a maximum database size of 4 GB.

There is a nice SQL Server 2005 Features Comparison page table available between Microsoft SQL Express, Workgroup, Standard and Enterprise link. Thanks ablej for pointing.