Intel NUC + ESXI

bledd · 29 Nov 2018 at 09:07

Hi,

Anyone here using ESXI on a NUC? Looking to have a 'home lab' and these seem really suitable.

Wondering if the hardware sensors for temperature etc work ok in it

Chaos · 29 Nov 2018 at 17:12

These posts are quite old but will give you some ideas -

http://tekhead.it/blog/?s=nuc

tonym · 3 Jan 2019 at 16:18

Did you ever go anywhere with this Bledd?
It's something I've been thinking about.

ChrisD. · 4 Jan 2019 at 12:32

They work fine, just be aware if you expand the homelab and start playing with vSAN, NSX etc, that they are limited to 1Gb NICs and 32GB of RAM.

Virten.net has loads of info as have other VMware blogging sites such as virtuallyghetto.

If you are serious about learning VMware then I would recommend paying for (or getting work to pay for) a VMUG Advantage subscription. This gets you most of the software and license keys plus discounts on any Pearson Vue exams (and many other benefits).

Any questions on VMware or homelabs give me a shout as I have a lot of experience.

faxfan · 4 Jan 2019 at 15:20

Hey, just complete a Intel NUC ESXi build (NUC8i5BEK) and it's absolutely sterling. 8 cores and 32GB RAM to play with in a tiny and very quiet box.

Couple pointers if you do go done this router - update the bios, ESXi 6.7 doesn't have native LAN support though 6.5U2 does, USB network devices can be tricky - research this.

bledd · 4 Jan 2019 at 18:17

tonym said:
Did you ever go anywhere with this Bledd?
It's something I've been thinking about.

2x
NUC7i7DNKE
(This model worked out of the box, had to disable some TPM things in bios to stop an error showing in ESXI, update bios to latest.)

2x
32gb kits

2x
1tb WD blue m2

2x
32gb SanDisk usb.

Only thing missing really is hardware health monitoring.

Updating BIOS made ESXI 6.7 work.

Really happy with them although they are a tad loud to be in the same room as them; but I'm fussy with noise.

tonym · 4 Jan 2019 at 21:36

Very helpful, thanks all.

I'm probably going to go down the route of running Windows 10 and using VM Workstation to run ESXi with a couple of linked Server 2016 instances for AD etc testing.

awaybreaktoday · 11 Jan 2019 at 02:04

https://www.asrock.com/nettop/intel/Deskmini 110 Series/index.asp

AMD version due out in a couple of weeks.

maklabouhlel · 7 Feb 2019 at 04:02

awaybreaktoday said:
https://www.asrock.com/nettop/intel/Deskmini 110 Series/index.asp

AMD version due out in a couple of weeks.

AMD version seems quite appealing with it supporting the 2400G and probably next gen.

ChrisD. · 9 Feb 2019 at 14:09

Here's my 10Gbit homelab. I've got the small 8 port for IPMI, plus I need the POE for my AP which will be moving into the loft.

I've only just moved it upstairs so still a bit of tidying to do.

If people want I can start a thread with the details?

Vauxmad · 11 Feb 2019 at 20:16

ChrisD. said:
Here's my 10Gbit homelab. I've got the small 8 port for IPMI, plus I need the POE for my AP which will be moving into the loft.

I've only just moved it upstairs so still a bit of tidying to do.

If people want I can start a thread with the details?

Tidy setup - please do a thread

ChrisD. · 11 Feb 2019 at 20:50

Vauxmad said:
Tidy setup - please do a thread

Here you go.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/my-esxi-homelab.18845908/