Move to Vmware Workstation from Esxi?

[a5ian300zx]

Hi All,

Currently I have two PC's one my main PC I use for daily use and video encoding and a second one i have Esxi installed and is purely for learning and testing hence why its is hardly switched on.

Main PC (Micro ATX case)
Gigabyte Sniper G1 M3 - Z77 Motherboard
i7 3770K
32GB Trident X DDR3 2400Mhz Ram
1TB Samsung 850 SSD
Nvidia 1080ti GTX
Intel X540-T1

Home Lab Server (Mini ITX)
SuperMicro X10SDV-TLN4F (Onboard 8 Core 16T CPU / 2 x 10 GBe)
128GB DDR4 RAM 2133Mhz
512Gb Samsung 950 NVME
2 x 4TB Hitachi drives
32GB USB Stick - ESXI Install

Same case as below to
Supermicro | Products | SuperServers | Mini-ITX | 5028D-TN4T

Now I do not use the Home Lab as much and feel it is bit wasted at times.

I was thinking of moving the home server parts (CPU/RAM/MB) in the main PC and running ESXI within VMware Workstation and that way I have my test environment for learning and a powerful PC with NVME drive for every day use and also the onboard 10Gbe to connect to my Qnap 871.

Another option I was thinking of was to sell off my home server (minus the RAM) and the components from my main PC and invest in a Micro ATX - LGA 3647 Motherboard and 8c16T CPU. - thinking this might be overkill

X11SPM-TF | Motherboards | Products - Super Micro Computer, Inc.

1) Has anyone started using ESXI within VMware Workstation for learning? if so what are your thoughts

Any feedback always appreciated.

 

[Peanuthead]

It really comes down to usage. If you feel that you will get what you need my using your home pc (while keeping everything in 32GB RAM) then go for it. ESXi runs fine in VMware Workstation.

 

[WANg]

It really comes down to usage. If you feel that you will get what you need my using your home pc (while keeping everything in 32GB RAM) then go for it. ESXi runs fine in VMware Workstation.

Eh, still not great on an Ivy bridge class machine...plus if you expect to run VMs nested within ESXi inside VMWare Workstation on either Windows or Linux, it's definitely not going to be enjoyable. If nVidia is not so hostile towards people running their cards via VFIO passthrough in VMs (that is, use ESXi as your primary OS, build a massive Windows 10 VM, passthrough the GPU and run it there) - I would say that's the better way to go instead.

 

[a5ian300zx]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

Sorry for the confusion in the end the new main PC would consist of the below.

Main PC (Micro ATX case)
SuperMicro X10SDV-TLN4F (Onboard 8 Core 16T CPU / 2 x 10 GBe)
128GB DDR4 RAM 2133Mhz
512Gb Samsung 950 NVME -> change to 1TB NVME
TB Samsung 850 SSD - for VMs
Nvidia 1080ti GTX
2 x 4TB Hitachi drives - Datastore

@WANg - I would run it that way but the PC would get shutdown every time its not in use and also I would also use ESXI when i get the time to learn so not all the time.

 

[Peanuthead]

The IPC will be slower due to the lower clock speeds, so gaming might affected (if you game). Otherwise, I don't see an issue with it. You can always unplug the USB stick, load Windows Eval and test drive it with VMware Workstation. If you don't like it just easily move back to where you were.

 

[TLN]

Looks crazy that you have 128Gigs of DDR4 in homelab.
I see following options:
combine everything into one box, 128Gb of DDR4, passthrough videocard to "Desktop VM", set it to 32Gb memory, and have 96Gb available for yourself. When you deploy something in the lab, you're not playing, and vise-versa. One box, instead of two. You'll get less FPS in games, but do you really care?

option two:
Sell your Qnap, run NAS Software in LAB box, and probably reduce memory to 64 or 32gigs. That way it's easier to justify high-end machine running 24/7.

I have option #1 running now (2x2683 + 128Gb DDR4), but thinking about splitting into two machines: fast desktop and nice custom Lab box/NAS/HTPC.