How does VMware ESXi Server compare to ESX Server?

1. VMware ESXi Server has no service console

The traditional (full) ESX Server has a special built-in virtual machine called the service console. This service
console is really a modified version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux that is installed and running in every ESX Server by
default. The service console has special access to the VMware-proprietary VMFS file system. 3rd party applications
can be installed in the service console and Linux-based utilities can be run in the service console. Additionally,
VMware includes a number of ESX-related tools in the service console, most of which start with esxcfg- and they
are run by accessing the service console with SSH.
As VMware ESXi Server has no service console, there is no SSH access to the server and there are no 3rd party
applications that can be installed on the server. However, there are also benefits to NOT having these features
(discussed more below).
2. VMware ESXi Server uses RCLI instead of service console utilities
As ESXi doesnt have any CLI with VMware-related or Linux utilities, VMware needed to provide a CLI interface to
ESXi. What VMware came up with is the Remote Command line Interface (RCLI). This is an application that you
typically install as a VM and it is used to perform scheduled or ad hock scripting on the VMware Infrastructure. The
ESXi RCLI is its own command line where ESX server service console scripting would be made up of mostly Linux
utilities.
3. VMware ESXi Server is extremely thin = fast installation + faster boot
Because the service console has been removed from ESXi, the footprint in memory has been reduced to just 32MB.
In my opinion, it is truly amazing that you can run a hypervisor, allowing you to run virtual machines on your server,
with just 32MB of RAM overhead. In comparison, the full ESX Server on disk footprint is about 2GB.
Because the hypervisor is so small, the installation happens in about 10 minutes (or so) and the server boots up in 1-
2 minutes. This is quite different from the full ESX server installation and boot, both of which are longer.
4. VMware ESXi Server can be purchased as an embedded hypervisor on hardware
While ESXi is so small that it can be easily installed and can even be booted from a USB Flash disk, what is truly
unique about ESXi is that it is being sold by hardware vendors as a built-in hypervisor. That means that, say, you buy
a Dell server, and ESXi can be built inside the server (embedded) on a flash chip, on the motherboard. There is no
installation of ESXi on disk.
5. VMware ESXi Servers service console (firewall) is configured differently
As there is no service console to protect with the ESX Server security profile (software firewall), the security profile
configuration in ESXi is very simplistic. The ESXi security profile configuration consists of a couple of services that
you can either enable or not enable with inbound access. Here is a comparison between the two:

Figure 1: ESXi Security Profile only 2 services

6. VMware ESXi Server has a yellow firmware console
Instead of the full ESX Server service console boot (which looks like a Linux server booting), ESXi has a tiny Direct
Console User Interface (DCUI). Unofficially, I like to call this the yellow firmware console. In this ESXi console, all
that you can configure are some very basic ESXi server options such as the root user password, network settings,
and a couple other items. In the graphic below, you can see why I call it yellow:

Figure 3: ESXi yellow firmware console / DCUI
Because this tiny firmware console (did I mention that its yellow?) has so few features, the server is virtually
stateless. A new server can be configured in seconds because there is almost nothing to configure.
7. VMware ESXi Server has server health status built in
With ESXi some hardware monitoring features are built into the hypervisor. With ESX Server, this is not yet built in.
Instead, you must install hardware monitoring software in the service console. For more information on ESXi server
health status and how to install vendor-specific utilities to provide similar information on ESX Servers,

Figure 4: ESXi Health Status
8. Some networking features are configured through the service console are not available or are
experimental
As ESXi is relatively new and as ESX server has the option to install code for advanced ESX Server features, not all
features available in the full ESX Server are also available in ESXi. In fact, I have had issues getting VMware High
Availability (VMHA) to work in ESXi. VMHA was not officially supported on ESXi until some recent patches came out
for ESXi. Still, even after the patches, I had difficulties with ESXi and VMHA.
9. VMware ESXi Server requires fewer patches and less rebooting
Because the full ESX server essentially has a modified Linux system as the service console, there are many patches
that have to be deployed to keep it secure. With ESXi, on the contrary, the server has very few patches that need to
be applied. Because ESXi has no service console and it is considered more secure and more reliable. Security,
Reliability, and Maintainability, are all major factor when considering a hypervisor.
10. You can buy VMware ESXi Server for as little as $495
With the full version of ESX Server, the least expensive purchase option is the Foundation (Starter) kit for about
$1,500, while you can purchase ESXi only (with no support) for $495. On the other hand, if you do get the Foundation
kit, you not only get the full ESX Server but also ESXi and a number of VMware Infrastructure Suite options. Still,
obtaining ESXi for under $500 allows a server to do so much more than it ever could before.