VMware ESX
enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisor for deploying and serving virtual computers
VMware ESX (formerly named ESXi) and a different historic VMware ESX are enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisors developed by VMware, now a subsidiary of Broadcom, for deploying and serving virtual computers. As type-1 hypervisors, ESX is not a software application that is installed on an operating system (OS); instead, they include and integrate vital OS components, such as a kernel.
Prior to ESXi 3.0 (released in 2008) there was only the original hypervisor named ESX, and for a while both hypervisor products existed (until the final 4.1 release of the historic ESX in 2010). ESXi replaces the Service Console (a rudimentary operating system) with a more closely integrated OS. ESX/ESXi is the primary component in the VMware Infrastructure software suite. However from version 9.0, VMware renamed ESXi to ESX despite the name having already been used before for their earlier hypervisor product.
The name ESX originated as an abbreviation of Elastic Sky X. In September 2004, the replacement for ESX was internally called VMvisor, but later changed to ESXi (as the "i" in ESXi stood for "integrated").
Architecture
ESX runs on bare metal (without running an operating system) unlike other VMware products. It includes its own kernel. In the historic VMware ESX, a Linux kernel was started first and then used to load a variety of specialized virtualization components, including ESX, which is otherwise known as the vmkernel component. The Linux kernel was the primary virtual machine; it was invoked by the service console.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q179116. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2010 and 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “VMware ESX” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.