vSMP, vMotion/Storage vMotion, DRS

Virtual Symmetric Multi-Processing

Technology that allws the use of multiple processors inside a VM.
v5 lets you specify multiple cores (e.g. dual socket VM with 2 cores per socket)

vMotion and Storage vMotion

vMotion also known as 'live migration'
moves a running VM from one physical host to another with no downtime
Allows easy maintenance of a physical host that needs to be brought down for repair or maintenance
Allows easy migration to new physical hardware
Helps when multiple VMs are in contention for the same resources
Storage vMotion migrates a VM's storage while the VM is running
doing both vMotion and storage vMotion at the same time requires the VM to be powered off

vSphere DRS

leverages vMotion to provide automatic distribution of resource utilization across multiple ESXi hosts
At startup, DRS tries to put the VM on the physical host that is best suited to run that VM at that time (also known as intelligent placement)
While VM is running, DRS tries to provide 'load balancing' and moves VMs to the physical hosts that can provide the best resources without contention.