| Capability | VMware ESX | VMware ESXi |
| Service Console | Service | VMware |
| Console is a standard Linux environment through which a user has privileged | ESXi is like a computing appliance. | |
| access to the VMware ESX kernel. | VMware ESXi behaves more like firmware than traditional software. | |
| This Linux-based privileged access allows you to manage your | VMware ESXi does not support a privileged access environment like | |
| environment by installing agents and drivers and executing | the Service Console for management of VMware ESXi. | |
| scripts and other Linux-environment code. | VMware has provided remote scripting environments such as vCLI and PowerCLI | |
| to allow the remote execution of scripts. | ||
| CLI-Based Configuration | VMware | The |
| ESX Service Console has a host CLI through which VMware ESX can be | vSphere CLI (vCLI) is a remote scripting environment that interacts with | |
| configured. | VMware ESXi hosts to enable host configuration through scripts or specific | |
| VMware ESX can also be configured using vSphere CLI (vCLI). | commands. It replicates nearly all the equivalent COS commands for | |
| configuring ESX. | ||
| Scriptable Installation | VMware | VMware |
| ESX supports scriptable installations through utilities like KickStart . | ESXi Installable does not support scriptable installations | |
| Boot from SAN | VMware | VMware |
| ESX supports boot from SAN. | ESXi may be deployed as an embedded hypervisor or installed on a hard disk. | |
| SNMP | VMware | VMware |
| ESX supports SNMP. | ESXi supports SNMP when licensed. | |
| Active Directory Integration | VMware | VMware |
| ESX supports Active Directory integration through third-party agents | ESXi does not support Active Directory authentication of local users at this | |
| installed on the Service Console. | time. | |
| Software Patches and Updates | VMware | VMware |
| ESX software patches and upgrades behave like traditional Linux based patches | ESXi patches and updates behave like firmware patches and updates. | |
| and upgrades. | ||
| VI Web Access | VMware | VMware |
| ESX supports managing your virtual machines through VI Web Access. | ESXi does not support web access at this time. | |
| Diagnostics and Troubleshooting | VMware | VMware |
| ESX Service Console can be used to issue command that can help diagnose and | ESXi has several ways to enable support of the product: | |
| repair support issues with the server |