Comparison of vCenter Server and vCenter Server Appliance
In order to manage your virtualized data center, you are provided with some alternatives to install vCenter Server:
Installation on a supported Windows-based operating system
Deployment as a Linux-based virtual appliance (vCSA)
Both variants are quite similar as they both offer a wide range of management functionality, including:
Deployment and management of virtual machines, templates, and OVF appliances
Management of multiple ESXi hosts
Centralized network and storage provisioning
Statistics and performance data collection
Advanced cluster features including DRS, high availability, and fault tolerance
Beginning with vSphere 6.0, vCenter Server and the appliance alternative have the same limitations and features. Previous versions were intended for smaller setups, as they missed support for multiple linked (Linked Mode) or clustered (vCenter Heartbeat) vCenter Server instances.
