ESXi 5 Home Lab Hardware

[error310]

Can someone suggest an entry level computer that will work well with ESXi 5?  I've thought about using a cheap desktop computer from ebay, but it seems I need to be careful about compatibility issues.  My goals are to keep the budget as small as possible and create a basic test installation of ESXi 5.

I've checked VMware's HCL  http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php and it seems like most of it is rack mounted hardware.  I've also checked http://vm-help.com/ and http://ultimatewhitebox.com/ ... but these seem to be outdated or not enough info for version 5.

Thanks in advance!

[spravtek]

I can only suggest one more site to check http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=122

You can check other people's hardware and see if there are some options for you.

One little box springs to mind, HP's Microserver for example... It's not too expensive and people have success with it.

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

although you are asking explicitly for hardware, I'd like to mention that it is possible to run vSphere/ESXi 5 in VMware Workstation. With VMware Workstation 8 you can even run nested 64 bit guests. Depending on your needs this might be an alternative to purchasing hardware.

The physical system needs to have a 64-bit CPU which supports Intel-VT (AMD-V in case of an AMD CPU) and VT-x support needs to be enabled in the BIOS.

André

[mjtucker]

I have vsphere 5 on the following

ASUS M4N68T-M V2 motherboard

AMD Athlon(tm) II X3 450 Processor (3 core)

8 g ram (max for mother board is 8g)

Promise TX2(4) Sata Controller and a 500g Drive.

Intel 82546EB 2 port 10/100/1000 NICs - PCI

Intel 82572EI GB NIC - PCIX

Vsphere recognizes the onboard SATA, I am not using the onboard Sata

This runs well for a home lab, I have two in a cluster

All this was under $600.00 including a case and 500g HDD. If you use the onboard SATA you can save $150 or so. I had it from my old Vsphre 4.1 lab and kept it cause I knew it worked, never tried the onborad SATA bit is shows up in Configuration - Storage Adapters

Also I bought the 2 ports NICS from TXcessSurplus.com for about $20.00 each. I had a good purchase experience but shop at your own risk.

[error310]

I'm more interested in getting a system that will just work rather than building something.  The HP Microserver is appealing... but after thinking about the possibility of running ESXi 5 on VMware Workstation 8, I'm thinking the same would be possible on VMware Fusion for the mac, right?

So if I were to buy a mac mini, the entry level with a 2.3GHz i5 cpu, and put in 8Gb of ram... would that work?  Are there any gotcha's?

Do I have to worry about VT-x, VT-d, and stuff like that?

[oreillydata]

Hi Error,

Yes, Fusion 4 works the same as Workstation 8 when it comes to virtualizing ESX. And all processors in the new macs have Intel VT-d enabled.

One drawback that I have found is that the virtual networking in Fusion is not as robust as Workstation.

Check out my blog post for how to enable virtualizing 64-bit guests inside a virtualized ESX server:

http://virtualcitizen.org/2011/12/07/nested-64bit-vms-on-a-mac/

Good luck.

Tom

[a_p_]

You may want to take a look at jmattson's excellent blog post about "Running Nested VMs" (http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8970) which not only lists the requirements, but also shows what needs to be configured.

André

[RafaelKnuth]

Hej André,

thank you very much - that's exactly what I am going to do now.

Best wishes,

Rafael