vmware ESXi 8 Hardware recommendations

[kev2024]

Hi all,

I have a HP Microserver gen 10+ version 1 and it seems that only v2 of this server is supported on ESXi 8.

Does anyone know if there is a way to update version 1 to version 2 or do I simply need to purchase version 2 of this server or an alternative?

I bought gen10+ only a year or two ago and and had to then buy a raid card etc on top to get esxi 7 to work as it said needed hardware raid, not software raid. Will the same Raid card work in gen10+ v2? I have HPE smartarray E208i-p raid card, not overly cheap.

I have seen some supermicro servers seem to be compatible with more versions of esxi so am wondering is that a better choice? Any they more noisier than then microserver? such as the E300-9D-4CN8TP ?

Thanks for any suggesions. My esxi 7 doesn't have support for win11, even though I updated to ESXi 7.0u3, still no vTPM option, Do i need to have vcenter to get that option? The memory limitation is not ideal on the gen10+ v1, 32GB max and if i need vcenter, that is recommended 12gb ram? don't really have the excess memory for that and don't want 2 boxes etc.

Thanks for any suggestions

Kev

 

[zachj]

Support for Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) on ESXi without vCenter Server?

Starting with vSphere 6.7, users have been able to add a Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) to a VM, enabling guest operating systems to create and store private keys using a software-based rep…

williamlam.com

 

[zachj]

VMware dropped support for hardware moving from v7 to v8 but. It didn’t do anything to brick functionality…it’s not the same as moving from v6 to v7 where they changed the driver stack and hardware without a new driver just simply wouldn’t work.

They did drop support for older cpus but there’s a boot argument to skip the check.

 

[nickwalt]

I'm one of the many people who have built a quiet server out of used components from Chinese data centers. The great thing about these components is that they came from controlled environments with regulated temperature, conditioned power, free of moisture and dust - and the components have often passed their most-likely-to-fail periods. They get tested by the ebays store and the buyers can develop a relationship with that particular store along with many others on this forum.

I purchased a Supermicro H12SSL-i (new) with a used Rome Epyc 32 core CPU and have over time added 384GB RDIMM memory (6 x 64GB modules) and all components are accepted by ESXi.

That big card is an ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 Gen 4 bifurcated on the x16 slot, containing 4 x4 M.2 NVME slots.