Is it possible to install ESXi as Home Lab on PC hardware?

[VPabloM]

Hi, I'm trying to install ESXi on my home PC to start a home lab. My goal is to start learning about ESXi and run servers instances on it.

The hardware is

CPU AMD A4 3300 (Dual core, V technology)

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-A55M-DS2

RAM 8 Gb

SATA HDD

I tried ESXi 6 and 5.5 with same result. I managed to add the NIC driver into the ISO. Installation goes fine, it allows me to select drive, but at a certain point, it stop with the error message "invalid parameter..."

Shall I change to an Intel setup or use an older ESXi version?

Thank you very much.

Greetings,

Pablo.

[npadmani]

why don't you try nested environment.

Let's say you have win/linux on your PC with VMware Workstation running on it

using VMware workstation, starting building ESXi VMs on it for your practice. See if you could upgrade RAM to 16 GB. It will be more flexible this way.

[VPabloM]

Can I test MS Hyper-V under VW Workstation?

Thank you very much.

[BenLiebowitz]

I also recommend using VMware Workstation and use a nested solution...

Check out Autolab

http://www.labguides.com/autolab/

[npadmani]

Yes, it's possible, I have personally never tried running Hyper V on vmware workstation but see someone has already wrote about it.

http://www.rickygao.com/enable-hyper-v-under-vmware-workstation-for-your-lab/

[VPabloM]

So in order to run ESXi I have to run it nested into VM Workstation?

Then I would have Windows servers running virtualized on an ESXi, nested on VM Workstation?

Thank you very much

[cykVM]

But for a nested solution the 8GB RAM might be a bit tight. To be able to play around with multiple VMs you should have at least 16GB.