4 Ways for vSphere ESXi and vCenter Version Check

vSphere ESXi and vCenter versions

VMware vSphere is one of the most popular server virtualization software suites. VMware ESXi and vCenter Server are the 2 core components of vSphere.

• VMware ESXi: (formerly ESX) an enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisor that is used to deploy and manage virtual machines.
• VMware vCenter Server: an advanced server management software that provides a centralized platform for managing multiple ESXi virtual machines, patches, and automate ESXi host configuration, etc.

So far, many versions and updates of vSphere, ESXi and vCenter Server have been released. And just on August 30, 2022, VMware also announced vSphere 8.0. Soon after the vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c (build 19234570) will no longer be the vCenter latest version, so you may need to upgrade or update vCenter then.

Before you do that, you may also want to determine which VMware vCenter versions you are using. This article will cover 2 ways for vSphere ESXi and vCenter version check.

How to determine the vCenter version and build number

vCenter Server has long been released its new versions and updates with VMware vSphere since 2011. The historical versions include VirtualCenter 2.5, vCenter Server 4, vCenter Server 5, vCenter Server 6, vCenter Server 6.5, vCenter Server 7, etc.

Sometimes you may need to know the exact vCenter version numbers for some specific requirements. In this part, I will show you 2 ways for vCenter version check. You can then check other version information from vCenter release versions. Here are the detailed steps.

How to determine the vCenter version on vSphere web client

1. Access and log in to vSphere web client, and select the vCenter Server from the left inventory.

2. Click the Summary tab, the vCenter version and build number is located under the Version Information section.

Note: If you want to check which version of client integration plugin (CIP) or which version of Flash player you’re running. You can do that by clicking the Help > About VMware vSphere from the tool bar.

How to determine the vCenter version on vSphere C# client

1. Access and log in to vSphere client, and click Help > About VMware vSphere from the toolbar.

2. The About VMware vSphere dialog displays the VMware vCenter versions and build number.

Note: If you connect to an individual host only, you’ll see a build number for that particular individual ESXi host. Not vCenter server.

How to find the ESXi version and build number

VMware ESXi (formerly ESX) is available as a free download from VMware without the need to purchase a vCenter license. It has also been released many different versions and different versions of ESXi have many different features and limitations. For example, ESX and ESXi before version 5.0 do not support Windows 8/Windows 2012.

In this part, I will also show 2 ways to determine the ESXi version and build number. Here are the detailed steps.

How to determine the ESXi version on vSphere web client

1. Access and log in to vSphere ESXi web client.

2. Select the ESXi host from the left inventory, and the ESXi version and build number are located under the Configuration section.

How to determine the ESXi version via CLI

1. Log in to the ESXi host as root via Putty SSH session.

2. Type vmware -v or vmware -vl and press Enter. The ESXi version and build number will be displayed in the output.

Data insurance: image-level ESXi virtual machine backups

vCenter Server is a very convenient official platform for centrally managing multiple ESXi virtual machines, patches, and automate ESXi host configuration, etc. However, it does not provide the feature of virtual machine backup. And that makes backup software the commonly accepted choice to protect VM data, and by far the most convenient.

Here I introduce you to a VMware backup software AOMEI Cyber Backup, it enables you to backup multiple VMs in 3 simple steps. And it offers you the following benefits.

✦ Agentless Backup: create complete and independent image-level backup for VMware ESXi and Hyper-V VMs.
✦ Batch VM Backup: batch backup large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server, or multiple VMs on a standalone ESXi host.
✦ Multiple Storage Destinations: backup to local drive,  Cloud storage (AWS S3) or network destinations like Windows share or NAS.
✦ Automated Execution: create backup schedules to automate backups daily, weekly, monthly.
✦ Role Assignment: allows one administrator to create sub-accounts with limited privileges.

AOMEI Cyber Backup supports VMware ESXi 6.0 and later versions. Next, I will show you how to backup VMware ESXi VMs with AOMEI Cyber Backup in 3 simple steps. You can click the following button to download.

*You can choose to install this VM backup software on either Windows or Linux system.

3 simple steps to batch backup VMs on vCenter Server

1. Bind Devices: Access to AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, navigate to Source Device > VMware > + Add VMware Device to Add vCenter or Standalone ESXi host. And then click … > Bind Device.

2. Create Backup Task: Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task, and then set Task Name, Backup Type, Device, Target, Schedule, and Cleanup.

• Task Name: you can change the task name or use the default name with an ordinal.
• Device: batch select large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server for centralized backup.

• Target: select to back up to a local path, or to a network path.
• Schedule (optional): perform full, differential, or incremental backup, and automate execution according to the frequency you specified.

• Cleanup (optional): automatically delete the old backup copies that exceed the retention period you specified.

3. Run Backup: Click Start Backup and select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.

Created backup tasks will be listed and monitored separately for restoring, progress checking and schedule changing.

When restoring, you can also restore to new location to create a new VM in the same or another datastore/host directly from the backup, saving the trouble of re-configuring the new VM.

Summary

VMware ESXi and vCenter Server are 2 key components of VMware vSphere suite, and so far, they have so many different versions and builds available. If you plan to upgrade or update vCenter, or just want to track what you have upgraded and what you haven’t, then you may want to determine the exact ESXi or VMware vCenter versions and build information.

The steps to determine the VMware vCenter versions and build numbers are very simple. In this article, I showed 4 ways in total for ESXi and vCenter version check. If you want to start a new VMware project or evaluating new features, it’s always good to start with the ESXi and vCenter latest version.