I am researching the pro and the cons of esxi on usb
At the moment we use HP Servers and i started with esx3.5i in AUg. 2008 on HP USB STick.
Now HP has replaced the fourth time the usb stick.
1.) green one , not certified
2.) black one troubles
3.) third one some troubles
4.) lexar
http://vmwaretips.com/wp/2009/10/27/vmware-esxi-4-and-hp-servers/
http://www.techhead.co.uk/link-running-vmware-esxi-on-approved-hp-usb-or-sd-memory
ESXi 4.0 update 1 is coming in Ja. 2010
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/12/10/esxi-lessons-learned-part-2/
ConS : •Jumbo frames are not supported for VMkernel networking interfaces in ESXi. (page 54)
SPOF through esxi on usb ?
I would say Bios is although on flash chip
ALthough a good argument : The ESXi kernel stages all writes to a RAM disk files system
http://www.dailyhypervisor.com/2009/04/07/esx-vs-esxi-which-is-better/
http://communities.vmware.com/message/1339348
Some vendor (like Dell) will release a special configuration with a dual SD reader to implement a "RAID" configuration also for the flash card.http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-11349
Anyone no about this special configuration ?
Security
http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/?p=829
Pro : ESxi needs less patches than esx
STateless ESX over dhcp better than esxi on usb
http://www.chriswolf.com/?p=182
Why implement complicated pxe and dhcp in branch offices ?
Costs:
Pro ESXi: 80 $ USB or SD Card
COn'S ESX: Need Raid COntroller and two disks 800 $
More pro's and cons
http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-11113
HP Mainboard layout SD-Card and USB internal
http://www.petri.co.il/installing-esxi4-in-embedded-mode.htm
