It is of prime importance to ensure that every ESXi host in a cluster is configured identically to achieve operational efficiency at the cluster level. There is a lot of configuration that goes into an ESXi host after it is deployed. This includes the general/advanced settings, storage, and networking configuration, as well as licensing and much more. With the number of ESXi hosts that can be part of a cluster and vCenter increasing with every release of vSphere, the amount of work to be done manually will also increase.

Starting with vSphere 4.1, VMware introduced a method to extract the configuration from an ESXi host and form a configuration template, often referred to as a blueprint or golden image. Such a configuration template is called a vSphere Host Profile.