You’ll want to double-check, but any processor made in the past five years likely supports these technologies. For AMD processors, this is called AMD-V. For Intel, this is typically called VT-x. Virtually (get it?) every processor has some sort of virtualization support these days. There are a number of new features that processors may or may not have that will affect your ability to have a functioning ESXi host. Proof that I’m, like, technical and stuff.īut again, for most VM workloads don’t go for a monster processor if it means you can only afford 4 GBs of RAM. VMware makes pretty good use of hyper threading by being able to put a vCPU (what the virtual machine sees as a core) on each context, so get it if you can. Each core would have two separate execution contexts. A processor with hyper threading support will make 4 cores look like 8 to the the operating system. I would recommend putting more emphasis on the number of cores. I wouldn’t worry too much about the core speed itself, especially on a virtualization system. These days, you can easily afford a quad-core system. On the Intel side, new processors such as i5’s or i7’s make good virtualization processor. RAM is usually the most important aspect. That said, there are a couple of things with processors you want to keep in mind. With virtualization and most virtualization workloads, processors are secondary. Processorsįor a long time, it seems that processors got all the glory.
I tried once using off-brand RAM, and all I got was a face full of purple-screens of death. Remember, this is a virtualization host, not a gaming rig. I can get 16 GB of good desktop memory for less than $100 USD now.Īlso, make sure to get good RAM, and don’t necessarily go for fast RAM, and it’s definitely not a good idea to overclock RAM in a virtualized environment. Given RAM prices these days, it doesn’t make sense not to fill them to the brim with RAM. Most 4 DIMM slot motherboards these days can have up to 16 GB of RAM, 6 DIMM slots can do up to 24 GB. Some of the i7 boards have 6, which is even better. When researching a system, it’s a good idea to make sure it has at least 4 memory DIMM slots. RAM Rules Everything Around Meįor virtualization, RAM is paramount. Usually the only thing I’ve had to add is a server-grade NIC (recommendations in the NIC section). Whether you’re shopping for a motherboard or a pre-built system, I’ve yet to find a fairly recent mid to high-end system that doesn’t load ESXi. Most server-grade hardware will run fine, but if you’re looking to use something a little more pedestrian, some of the out-of-the-box components may not work, or may not have the features you need.
The issue with ESXi is that it’s somewhat picky about the hardware it will run on (although it’s improved with ESXi 4 and 5). But for a home lab or basic virtualization environment, that’s no big deal.
The free license lets you run as many VMs as you can stuff in there, although you can’t do any of the fancy features like integrate with vCenter or vMotion and other fun stuff. With ESXi 5, there’s no core limit although you’re limited to 32 GB of RAM (that shouldn’t be a problem). With ESXi 4.x, you were limited to 6 cores and 256 GB of RAM.
So I’ve written this guide on how to build/spec/buy your own ESXi system.įirst off, ESXi is available for free. It’s the least expensive way to get a virtualization host, and they’re a heck of a lot quieter than most servers, making them appropriate for putting them in places that aren’t a data center. One route I’m particularly fond of is desktop hardware. And invariably, someone will link you to the site’s whitebox HCL. It’s a good list if you have a pile of hardware and you want to see what works, but if you’re looking for which system to buy or what components to obtain to build your own system, it’s mostly useless. Like a lot of people, you’ll hit up a message board or two. Perhaps you want an inexpensive server for home use, and something that’s going to be quieter than the jet-engines that cool the big stuff.
So you want an ESXi (vSphere Hypervisor) server, but you don’t want to spend several grand on a blade chassis or enterprise-grade server.