Running ESX 4 on a laptop

[renwong]

Is there a laptop which can be used to install ESX 4.0 and up ? (I know that DELL M6400 is no a candidate)

Or any highly mobile desktop ?

[lnairn]

Hi,

i think you will not find any laptop supported from vmare.

If you wish to install esx for testing, you can install it over vmware workstation.

[DSTAVERT]

Welcome to the forums.

The easiest solution to a mobile ESX platform is to install VMware Workstation 7 and install ESX or ESXi as a guest. It is fully supported. You can, with enough RAM install more than one ESX(i) guest and VM's inside those.

[renwong]

I have tried workstation on a laptop and ESX on a desktop. The issue is about mobility and performance. What I can accomplish on the ESX desktop cannot be duplicated on the workstation possibly due to the Window overhead and I can't travelling with my desktop easily.

[lnairn · Accepted solution]

You can install vmware Workstation/server over linux, and the overhead will be less.

[DSTAVERT]

Use a desktop replacement laptop. They aren't about power saving or lightness. They often have desktop processors and can hold more RAM. With 16GB of RAM and a quad core processor there isn't much you can't demonstrate. I would doubt you will find a laptop that had all the right embedded components that were recognized by ESX(i). If you had ESX installed on a laptop you would also need another something to run the vSphere client.