VMWare ESXi hardware compatability questions

ajf

ajf

ajf

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I am looking at building a machine specifically for installing the free VMWare ESXi 3.5 software on so I can set up a test virtual network.

Can anyone confirm which processors are actually supported?
I was considering using either a Core 2 Quad Q8400 or on of the AMD Phenom II X4 955 or X6 1005T.

Will most motherboards be supported? Needs onboard graphics.

Probably go with 4 of 8Gb memory and a couple of striped 1Tb disks.
 
wouldnt worry too much about cpu, unless you want to run x64 guests, in which case ensure your cpu has either intel-vt support or amd-v support.

it's the chipset, storage controller, and network card where you are going to have compatibility problems.

google for the esxi whitebox hcl for some really good information about whats supported.

for info, i'm running an intel e6550 on a gigabyte g33-ds2r motherboard with the on-board sata controllers, a couple of 160gb disks and a 500gb disk, 8gb of 'generic' memory, and an intel gigabit network card. i didn't plan to run esxi, so i dropped lucky with compatibility as this little lot is rock solid.

hope this helps.
 
It's something of a cliché in here, but the good ol' ProLiant ML115 G5 can still be found for around £230+VAT. That gives you a quad core Opteron in a nice small, quiet chassis.

8GB isn't too expensive. Only weakness is RAID as (AFAIK), the onboard RAID isn't supported by ESXi so you'd need to add a controller.

If you go down the self-build route, the vmWare HCL is a handy resource to see what is supported.
 
Thanks both.
The list is really helpful. I might look at the ML115 option too. There are a couple of specced up ones on auction at the moment too complete with hardware RAID cards.
I guess I don't NEED RAID, I just understand that the faster speeds of striping would help performance.

With multiple seperate SATA disks I assume I can just set them as different ' storage pools' - is that the correct term?

Andrew

P.S One slightly off topic question, but how do SAS and SATA differentiate? I understood that SATA can be used on a SAS interface?
 
It's something of a cliché in here, but the good ol' ProLiant ML115 G5 can still be found for around £230+VAT. That gives you a quad core Opteron in a nice small, quiet chassis.
Click to expand...

I've just ordered one of these for exactly the same purpose as you after spending a good while researching.

Picked up a PERC 6 disk controoler of "the bay" (£120) to which is overkill for a test bed but great to play with the different features/RAID sets.

I think the built in controller on the ML115 will work in ESX but not in RAID mode - I'll let you know if you can wait a few days :)
 
unclepablo said:
I think the built in controller on the ML115 will work in ESX but not in RAID mode - I'll let you know if you can wait a few days :)
Click to expand...

Sorry, I should have made that clearer. Yes, the ML115 G5 onboard SATA is fine for single disks, just no RAID.

Boot from USB is nice - I've had one as an ESXi test bed for over a year now with no troubles. :)

ajf said:
With multiple seperate SATA disks I assume I can just set them as different ' storage pools' - is that the correct term?
Click to expand...

Yes, vSphere will just see two (or more) datastores (one for each drive) and you can chose where to put your VMs when creating.
 
The only issues I've ever had running esxi on anything came down to the disks or RAID controllers. Those aside, I think it runs on everything...
(Did need another network card for the Opti 755 though.)
 
Hell, I'm running it on a K45 Shuttle box ... only a small system with a couple of linux test VM's but runs them quite happily booting ESXi off USB.
Did have to add an Intel NIC but otherwise it was all fine,
 
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