You can set most of the CPU parameters when you create virtual machines or after you install the guest operating system. Some actions require that you power off the virtual machine before you change the settings.

VMware uses the following terminology. Understanding these terms can help you plan your strategy for CPU resource allocation.

CPU
The CPU, or processor, is the component of a computer system that performs the tasks required for computer applications to run. The CPU is the primary element that performs the computer functions. CPUs contain cores.
CPU Socket
A CPU socket is a physical connector on a computer motherboard that connects to a single physical CPU. Some motherboards have multiple sockets and can connect multiple multicore processors (CPUs).
Core
A core contains a unit containing an L1 cache and functional units needed to run applications. Cores can independently run applications or threads. One or more cores can exist on a single CPU.
Resource sharing
Shares specify the relative priority or importance of a virtual machine or resource pool. If a virtual machine has twice as many shares of a resource as another virtual machine, it is entitled to consume twice as much of that resource when the two virtual machines are competing for resources.
Resource allocation
You can change CPU resource allocation settings, such as shares, reservation, and limit, when available resource capacity does not meet demands. For example, if at year end, the workload on accounting increases, you can increase the accounting resource pool reserve.
vSphere Virtual Symmetric Multiprocessing (Virtual SMP)
Virtual SMP or vSphere Virtual Symmetric Multiprocessing is a feature that enables a single virtual machine to have multiple processors.

Virtual CPU Limitations

The maximum number of virtual CPUs that you can assign to a virtual machine is 768. The number of virtual CPUs depends on the number of logical CPUs on the host, and the type of guest operating system that is installed on the virtual machine.

Be aware of the following limitations:

  • A virtual machine cannot have more virtual CPUs than the number of logical cores on the host. The number of logical cores is equal to the number of physical cores if hyperthreading is deactivated or two times that number if hyperthreading is activated.
  • If a running virtual machine has 128 virtual CPUs or less, you cannot use hot adding to further increase the number of virtual CPUs. To change the number of virtual CPUs beyond that limit, you must first power off the virtual machine. By contrast, if a running virtual machine already has more than 128 virtual CPUs, you can use hot adding to further increase the number of virtual CPUs to up to 768.
  • The maximum number of virtual CPU sockets that a virtual machine can have is 128. If you want to configure a virtual machine with more than 128 virtual CPUs, you must use multicore virtual CPUs.
  • Not every guest operating system supports Virtual SMP, and guest operating systems that support this functionality might support fewer processors than are available on the host. For information about Virtual SMP support, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

Configuring Multicore Virtual CPUs

VMware multicore virtual CPU support lets you control the number of cores per virtual socket in a virtual machine. This capability lets operating systems with socket restrictions use more of the host CPU cores, which increases overall performance.

Important: When you configure your virtual machine for multicore virtual CPU settings, you must ensure that your configuration complies with the requirements of the guest operating system EULA.

Using multicore virtual CPUs can be useful when you run operating systems or applications that can take advantage of only a limited number of CPU sockets.

You can configure a virtual machine with ESXi 7.0 Update 1 and later compatibility to have up to 768 virtual CPUs. A virtual machine cannot have more virtual CPUs than the actual number of logical CPUs on the host. The number of logical CPUs means the number of physical processor cores or two times that number if hyperthreading is enabled. For example, if a host has 128 logical CPUs, you can configure the virtual machine for 128 virtual CPUs.

You configure how the virtual CPUs are assigned in terms of cores and cores per socket. Determine how many CPU cores you want in the virtual machine, then select the number of cores you want in each socket, depending on whether you want a single-core CPU, dual-core CPU, tri-core CPU, and so on. Your selection determines the number of sockets that the virtual machine has.

The maximum number of virtual CPU sockets that a virtual machine can have is 128. If you want to configure a virtual machine with more than 128 virtual CPUs, you must use multicore virtual CPUs.

For more information about multicore CPUs, see the vSphere Resource Management documentation.