VMware Workstation vs. ESXi for nested virtualization?

[peterdabr]

Although I have my thoughts on the subject, I'd like to hear what others have to say. What are the pros and cons of using Workstation vs. ESXi for running nested ESXi and VMs inside for home lab purposes? What would you chose now if you were to rebuild your lab from the scratch (to simplify it: ESXi 5.5 or Workstation 10?)

Will award points for helpful/best answers.

Thanks

P

[rcporto]

Using VMware Workstation have a lot of benefits, including:

- mobility: you can bring your lab in your bag to anywhere if running on laptop 🙂

- simplicity: you don't need an different station to open vSphere Client and connect to your lab;

- recoverability: you can rebuild your environment very fast;

- no need "so" specific hardware: since you will install ESXi inside Workstation, you don't need to worry with physical NIC and disk controller compatibility... you will only need an compatible CPU and memory 🙂

Using ESXi have some benefits, including:

- performance: will be better than running on Workstation;

- scalability: if not running in laptop, you can easily get more memory, disks and network cards than you will get on laptop.