--- title: "New VMware Cloud on AWS Host: i7i.metal-24xl" description: "We’ve expanded the VMC fleet with the new i7i (i7i." date: 2026-04-01T08:06:00+00:00 modified: 2026-06-01T21:07:20+00:00 author: James Kilby categories: - VMware - VMware Cloud on AWS - TrueNAS Scale - vSAN - vSphere - VCF - Ansible - Automation tags: - #I7i - #VMware - #VMware Cloud on AWS url: https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/new-vmc-host-i7i-metal-24xl/ image: https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/VMConAWS.png.webp --- ![](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/VMConAWS.png.webp) [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) | [VMware Cloud on AWS](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/vmware-cloud-on-aws/) # New VMware Cloud on AWS Host: i7i.metal-24xl By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk) April 1, 2026 · Updated June 1, 2026 • 📖4 min read(869 words) 📅**Published:** April 01, 2026•**Updated:** June 01, 2026 We’ve expanded the VMC fleet with the new **i7i**[**(i7i.24xlarge)** ](https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/i7i/)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](https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/central-libraries/us/en/documents/white-paper-intel-tme.pdf) 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](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/live-recovery.html). 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 the instance’s 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](https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/04/01/vmware-cloud-aws-i7i-metal-24xl-instance/). ## 📚 Related Posts * [Using Content Libraries in VMC to deploy software faster](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/01/using-content-libraries-in-vmc-to-deploy-software-faster/) * [How VMware Cloud on AWS Handles Host Failures Automatically](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2020/09/vmc-host-errors/) * [An in-depth look at VMware Cloud on AWS hosts](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/08/vmc-host-deepdive/) ## Similar Posts * [ ![How to Run ZFS on VMware vSphere: Setup Guide and Best Practices](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ZFS.jpg) ](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/12/zfs-on-vmware/) [TrueNAS Scale](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/truenas-scale/) | [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) | [vSAN](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/vsan-vmware/) | [vSphere](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vsphere/) ### [How to Run ZFS on VMware vSphere: Setup Guide and Best Practices](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/12/zfs-on-vmware/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk) December 18, 2024 · Updated June 1, 2026 Introduction Copy on Write Disk IDs Trim Introduction I have run a number of systems using ZFS since the earliest days of my homelab using Nexenta, all the way back in 2010. * [ ![VMware Cloud on AWS \(VMC\) resource hub](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/iu-1-768x395.png) ](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2020/09/vmc-host-errors/) [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) | [VMware Cloud on AWS](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/vmware-cloud-on-aws/) ### [How VMware Cloud on AWS Handles Host Failures Automatically](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2020/09/vmc-host-errors/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk) September 15, 2020 · Updated June 5, 2026 Learn how host failures are handled within VMC * [ ![VMware Holodeck on Older CPUs: Fixing Compatibility Issues](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/40oOd8IipPvtrPJs-1198788743-768x737.jpg) ](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/01/holodeck-cpu-fixes/) [VCF](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/vcf/) | [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) ### [VMware Holodeck on Older CPUs: Fixing Compatibility Issues](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/01/holodeck-cpu-fixes/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk) January 18, 2024 · Updated June 1, 2026 How to deploy Holodeck with Legacy CPU’s * [ ![vSphere Power Management Ansible Playbooks with Semaphore](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/vsphere-power-management-ansible-768x403.png) ](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/vsphere-power-management-driven-by-ansible/) [Ansible](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/ansible/) | [Automation](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/automation/) ### [Automating vSphere Power Management driven by Ansible and SemaphoreUI](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/vsphere-power-management-driven-by-ansible/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk) April 15, 2026 · Updated June 1, 2026 In this post I’ll walk through how I use vSphere Power Management driven by Ansible and SemaphoreUI to automatically reduce ESXi host electricity consumption — saving real money on my Octopus Agile tariff by toggling hosts between Low Power and Balanced policies. 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