New VMware Cloud on AWS Host: i7i.metal-24xl
We’ve expanded the VMC fleet with the new i7i (i7i.24xlarge)host type. Powered by Intel Emerald Rapids processors with PCIe Gen5 connectivity, it delivers the fleet’s highest single-core performance and memory bandwidth, making it well suited for latency-sensitive workloads and high-performance vSAN configurations.
Key Technical Specs:
- Performance: Intel Emerald Rapids CPUs + PCIe Gen5, offering the fleet’s highest clock speeds and memory bandwidth.
- Storage: Optimized for vSAN with the fastest available NVMe devices. Support for both vSAN OSA and ESA
- Security: Enhanced security based on Intel Total Memory Encryption
This host brings a blend of usable options to complement the existing VMC fleet ranging from bleeding edge performance for tier one applications. It also supports expanded DR capabilities with SCFS via VLR.
The below table compares the specifications of all nodes currently running in VMC.
| I3 | I3en | I4i | I7i | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Nitro Version | v2 | v3 | v4 | v4 |
| CPU | ||||
| Processor Name | Intel Xeon E5-2686 v4 | Intel Xeon Platinum 8175 | Intel Xeon 8375c | Intel Xeon 8559c |
| No of Physical Cores | 36 | 48 | 64 | 48 |
| Hyperthreading | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Base Clock | 2.3GHz | 2.5 Ghz | 2.9 GHz | 3.2 GHz |
| Turbo Clock | N/A | 3.1 GHz | 3.5 GHz | 4.0 Ghz |
| Processor Family | Broadwell | Skylake | Ice Lake | Emerald Rapids |
| Supported Custom Core Counts | 8 16 36 | 8 16 24 30 36 48 | 8 16 24 30 36 48 64 | 8 16 24 30 36 |
| Memory | ||||
| Capacity GiB | 512 | 768 | 1024 | 768 |
| Memory Speed | DDR4-2400 | DDR4-2666 | DDR4-3200 | DDR5-5600 |
| Networking | ||||
| Network Adaptor Speed Gb/s | 25 | 100 | 75 | 56.25 |
| Hardware Network Encryption | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Storage | ||||
| Drive Connection | PCIe Gen3 | PCIe Gen3 | PCIe Gen4 | PCIe Gen5 |
| Physical Drives | 8×1900 | 8×7500 | 8×3570 | 6×3750 |
| Physical Raw Space GiB | 15,200 | 60,000 | 28,560 | 22,500 |
| vSAN OSA Cache Disk | 2 | 4^ | 2 | 2 |
| vSAN OSA Capacity Disk | 6 | 28^ | 6 | 4 |
| vSAN Compression | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| vSAN OSA Deduplication | Yes | No | No | No |
| vSAN OSA Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| vSAN ESA Support | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Underlying Storage Performance IOPS* | – | 80000 | 160000 | 120000 |
| Underlying Storage Performance Throughput* | – | 2375 | 5000 | 3750 |
*Storage performance figures taken from instances website vSAN performance will differ based on OSA/ESA, Storage Policy in use and number of hosts in the environment.
^I3en hosts use NVMe namespaces to carve the disks up differently to how they are physically presented
** In vSAN ESA all drives are in a single tier and contribute to both performance and capacity
What Workloads Benefit Most from the i7i?
The i7i.metal-24xl is optimised for I/O-intensive enterprise workloads that demand the highest possible random IOPS with predictable, sub-millisecond latency. It is particularly well-suited for:
- SQL Server and Oracle databases — DDR5-5600 memory bandwidth and Gen5 NVMe deliver measurable query throughput gains over i4i hosts
- High-frequency messaging platforms — Kafka and Redis workloads benefit from low-latency NVMe and improved single-core turbo performance up to 4.0 GHz
- AI/ML inference — large model serving with high memory bandwidth maps well to the 768 GiB DDR5 configuration
- VDI and virtualised desktop workloads — the Custom CPU Core Count option (8, 16, 24, 30, or 36 physical cores) allows cost-effective right-sizing per host
- Workloads currently on i3 or i3en — the i7i offers significantly better compute, memory bandwidth, and storage performance
vSAN Configuration and Deployment Requirements
The i7i.metal-24xl supports both vSAN OSA (Original Storage Architecture) and vSAN ESA (Express Storage Architecture). ESA is the recommended configuration for new deployments — it treats all six NVMe drives as a single-tier pool, delivering superior throughput and compression compared to OSA.
- SDDC version 1.26v2 or later required for cluster conversions and new secondary cluster deployments
- Minimum 3-node cluster — with vSAN compression enabled, a 3-node i7i cluster delivers strong usable capacity from the 6 × 3,750 GiB NVMe drives per host
- Stretched Cluster support — opt-in multi-AZ stretched cluster deployments supported, providing HA across two AWS Availability Zones in a single region
- Custom CPU Core Count — 8, 16, 24, 30, or 36 physical cores per host, useful for Oracle licensing optimisation
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the i7i.metal-24xl compare to the i4i?
The i7i delivers approximately 23% better compute performance and over 10% better price-performance than the i4i. It upgrades from 4th Gen Intel Xeon (Sapphire Rapids) to 5th Gen (Emerald Rapids), moves from DDR4 to DDR5-5600 memory, and adds PCIe Gen5 NVMe. Storage capacity is 22.5 TiB raw per host versus the i4i’s 30 TiB, but random IOPS is significantly higher.
What SDDC version is required for the i7i.metal-24xl?
You need SDDC version 1.26v2 or later to convert existing clusters or deploy new secondary clusters with i7i hosts. New SDDCs can be provisioned with i7i directly once the instance type is available in your region.
Is stretched cluster supported on i7i?
Yes. Customers can opt in to a multi-AZ stretched cluster deployment for new SDDCs using i7i.metal-24xl hosts, providing high availability across two AWS Availability Zones within a single region.
Can I mix i7i hosts with i4i or i3en in the same cluster?
No — VMware Cloud on AWS clusters are single host-type only. You can add an i7i as a secondary cluster within an existing SDDC, but mixing host types within the same cluster is not supported.
The official announcement can be found here.
