This document gives the minimum CPU, RAM, and storage requirements to create
an admin cluster and a user cluster on a single ESXi host.
The requirements given here are suitable for a proof-of-concept demonstration.
For production hardware requirements, see
CPU, RAM, and storage requirements.
Minimum CPU, RAM and storage requirements
Suppose you want an installation that has the following elements:
Note that there is only one control-plane node for the user cluster. This means
that the user cluster does not have a high-availability control plane.
Then these are the minimum resource requirements:
8 physical CPUs @ 2.7GHz with hyperthreading enabled
40 GiB RAM
450 GiB of storage
Add Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring
If you want to add
Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring
to the installation described in the preceding section, you need an
additional 20 GiB of storage. So the minimum resource requirements would be:
8 physical CPUs @ 2.7GHz with hyperthreading enabled
40 GiB RAM
470 GiB of storage
Example host and datastore
Here's an example of an
ESXi host
and a
vSphere
datastore
that meet the requirements of the installations described in this document:
ESXi host configuration:
Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
Physical CPUs: 8 CPUs @ 2.7 GHz
Processor type: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8168 CPU @ 2.70 GHz
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-25 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis document outlines the minimum CPU, RAM, and storage needed for a proof-of-concept setup of an admin cluster and a user cluster on a single ESXi host.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe minimum requirements for the specified setup, including an admin workstation, Seesaw load balancing, an admin cluster, and a user cluster, are 8 physical CPUs, 40 GiB RAM, and 450 GiB of storage.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAdding Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring to the setup increases the minimum storage requirement by 20 GiB, resulting in a total of 470 GiB of storage needed.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe user cluster in this minimum setup only has a single control-plane node, which means the cluster will not have a high-availability control plane.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example ESXi host and datastore configuration meeting these requirements is provided, including specifications for the manufacturer, processor type, ESXi version, datastore type, and RAID level.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Minimum CPU, RAM, and storage requirements\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nThis document gives the minimum CPU, RAM, and storage requirements to create\nan admin cluster and a user cluster on a single ESXi host.\n\nThe requirements given here are suitable for a proof-of-concept demonstration.\nFor production hardware requirements, see\n[CPU, RAM, and storage requirements](/anthos/clusters/docs/on-prem/1.9/how-to/cpu-ram-storage).\n\nMinimum CPU, RAM and storage requirements\n-----------------------------------------\n\nSuppose you want an installation that has the following elements:\n\n- An admin workstation\n\n- [Seesaw](/anthos/clusters/docs/on-prem/1.9/how-to/bundled-load-balance) load balancing\n\n- An admin cluster that has:\n\n - One Admin cluster control-plane node\n - Two admin cluster add-on nodes\n - One user-cluster control-plane node\n - [Fleet registration](/anthos/clusters/docs/on-prem/1.9/how-to/admin-cluster-configuration-file#gkeconnect-section) enabled\n - [Anti-affinity groups](/anthos/clusters/docs/on-prem/1.9/how-to/admin-cluster-configuration-file#antiaffinitygroups-enabled-field) disabled\n- A user cluster that has:\n\n - Three worker nodes\n - [Fleet\n registration](/anthos/clusters/docs/on-prem/1.9/how-to/user-cluster-configuration-file#gkeconnect-section) enabled\n - [Anti-affinity groups](/anthos/clusters/docs/on-prem/1.9/how-to/user-cluster-configuration-file#antiaffinitygroups-enabled-field) disabled\n\nNote that there is only one control-plane node for the user cluster. This means\nthat the user cluster does not have a high-availability control plane.\n\nThen these are the minimum resource requirements:\n\n- 8 physical CPUs @ 2.7GHz with hyperthreading enabled\n- 40 GiB RAM\n- 450 GiB of storage\n\nAdd Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring\n--------------------------------------\n\nIf you want to add\n[Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring](/anthos/clusters/docs/on-prem/1.9/how-to/user-cluster-configuration-file#stackdriver-section)\nto the installation described in the preceding section, you need an\nadditional 20 GiB of storage. So the minimum resource requirements would be:\n\n- 8 physical CPUs @ 2.7GHz with hyperthreading enabled\n- 40 GiB RAM\n- 470 GiB of storage\n\nExample host and datastore\n--------------------------\n\nHere's an example of an\n[ESXi host](https://www.vmware.com/products/esxi-and-esx.html)\nand a\n[vSphere\ndatastore](https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-3CC7078E-9C30-402C-B2E1-2542BEE67E8F.html)\nthat meet the requirements of the installations described in this document:\n\n- ESXi host configuration:\n\n - Manufacturer: Dell Inc.\n - Physical CPUs: 8 CPUs @ 2.7 GHz\n - Processor type: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8168 CPU @ 2.70 GHz\n - Processor sockets: 2\n - ESXi version: 6.7U3\n - vCenter Server version: 6.7U3\n - Hyperthreading: enabled\n- Datastore configuration:\n\n - Type: VMFS 6.82\n - Drive type: SSD\n - Vendor: DELL\n - Drive type: logical\n - RAID level: RAID1"]]
