VMware ESXi Rig

Rhodan · 6 Mar 2009 at 08:38

What kind of build would you suggest for running VMware ESXi (the free version)?

I'm looking for just the box, so no monitor, keyboard, mouse or harddrive. Onboard graphics is fine.

Thanks

Faffer · 6 Mar 2009 at 10:59

Quad core, plenty of RAM and a compatible network card.

blop · 6 Mar 2009 at 11:53

2 NICs , RAID hard disks for the VMS and a single disk for the system

siclilmonkey · 6 Mar 2009 at 12:01

the mobo has to be a server board as it only supports server hardware.

i tried to set it up on my spare desktop at home and it would not let me install because it was not server based hardware.

this was when it first came out tho not sure if it has changed now.

but as for the question more cpu cores and ram the better

blop · 6 Mar 2009 at 12:10

VM server is more than surfficent for home use....runs very well on Ubuntu, XP or windows server 2003

and it looks just like ESX from a management point of view....you can even use the Infrastructure Client for ESX.

Faffer · 6 Mar 2009 at 12:11

Doesn't strictly have to be server hardware, just need to be compatible hardware. For example, I've had it running on a Lenovo laptop, when it didn't work on a Lenovo desktop due to an unsupported network card on the desktop.

Rhodan · 6 Mar 2009 at 18:53

Thanks for all the replies.

Can someone spec me up an Intel motherboard + CPU + RAM combo? I don't need the latest, as I am on a budget ... so it has to come in at around 600 or less.

What would you recommend for a case and PSU ... it has to be super silent !

fishfishfish · 6 Mar 2009 at 20:00

Also see the thread on the HP Proliant ML110 and ML115. These can be picked up very cheaply and run ESXi really well. I've got the ML115 with quad Opteron processor and have added 3.25TB of storage and 8GB of RAM. The whole rig has cost around £550.

Rhodan · 6 Mar 2009 at 21:01

Cool thanks for that, I'll check it out.