What if I don't have a server hardware?

[Shuji]

Hello to all,

I'm new to VMware and would like to try installing it first but I don't have an available HP or Dell server. What can I do? Can I try installing this on an HP desktop? Thank you in advance.

[AntonVZhbankov]

Yes, you can. However it can happen that your hardware is not supported, so you'll have to install RAID controller or NIC.

---

VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[AndreTheGiant]

See those list for "unofficial" working hardware:

http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/Hardware_support.php

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm

http://ultimatewhitebox.com

Andre

[jfelinski]

If your desktop is powerfull enough, you'll be able to use and install esx on vmware workstation. Right now i have a fully working ESXi farm with Cellera simulator working inside my Vmware workstation. You'll need at least 2GB of ram/ESX server

Follow this guide: http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/470-ESX-3.5-is-running-on-Workstation-6.5-Build-91182-!!!.html

[azn2kew]

What VMware products you want to install and tested it on? The more RAM the better to virtualize any of these products so make sure your desktop has at least 4GB to play around with the lab effectively. You can install Linux/Windows as a hosted OS and then load VMware Server 2.0 for free or VMware Workstation 6.5 on top of your desktop. And create new virtual machine and load ESX4i or vSphere 4.0 for testing. You can also use Openfiler, FreeNAS, Starwind, StorMagic SvSAN, Xtravirt VSA for shared iSCSI/NFS storage for your VMotion, HA and DRS lab if you have two ESX hosts running in a cluster. I would suggest you upgrade to 8GB of RAM to have a full functional testing lab on a desktop environment. I've done this at home and it runs really well. For more instructions how to virtualize vSphere on VMware server and workstation, go to www.xtravirt.com for details.

Make sure the desktop has VT enable in the BIOS and support x64 bit.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

VMware vExpert 2009

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[Shuji]

Thanks Anton, I'll try it first using an HP Compaq D530 with 2GB of RAM. I hope this will work.