The past few deployments I have been using the flash drives, and ESXi just uses it during the boot time, once the ESXi is booted, everything is moved into the memory. You dont have to worry about the performance as everything is moved into memory. Since there is no moving part in the flash drives, I would think its more reliable than disks.

Welcome back stranger.

Go for it, but make sure you check out http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1033696

It keeps the configuration intact, dont have to worry about configuration everytime the ESXi boots.

I have used them but personally I do not like them,  I cant help thinking about all the pendrives that have barfed on me over the years.

that said they are only utilised during the boot process as the entire ESXi is moved into RAM,

as an aside, have you consided using auto deploy for your new infrastructure, that way no moving parts at all

Hey tom, for the pen drives, have you considered using something like the compact flash/ Sd card that a pro photographer uses?

Not for personal use of course but for esx booting.

the build quality is better, even equallogic uses compact flash for their san units. (at least they used to..)

The pendrives were personal,   for Hosts I uses quality Flash,  but I just don't really trust the USB connections, especially with the build quality of certain vendors