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Yes we will be using ESXi Enterprise..
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Does not matter what license you have, it's based on Hosts and Number of VMs.<br />
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either full version of SQL, or use the Appliance, and embedded database, which is not SQL.
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Good Choice, and the only real choice now, for the future.
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We will be setting up 5 vm host running ESXi 6 U2 and I was wondering if it would be ok to run sql exp or go to full blown sql?
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We will be setting up 5 vm host running ESXi 6 U2 and I was wondering if it would be ok to run sql exp or go to full blown sql?

What is the max number of vmware host for esxi 6 and SQL Express

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.

VMware

Virtualization is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, including (but not limited to) a virtual computer hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or computer network resources. Virtualization is usually the creation of a system that executes separate from the underlying hardware resources, or the creation of an entire desktop for systems located elsewhere, similar to thin clients.