vmware ESXi 8 Hardware recommendations

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

kev2024

New Member
Jan 19, 2024
4
0
1
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

Active Member
Apr 17, 2019
222
133
43
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

Member
Oct 4, 2023
48
15
8
Brisbane
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.

epyc-server.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: name stolen

kev2024

New Member
Jan 19, 2024
4
0
1
Hi all,
Just getting back to this. I see there is now a HP microserver gen 11 out which supports up to 128GB ram, much more usable as my existing gen 10 v1 is basically maxed out and using 31Gb of the max 32Gb.... so its a bit painful to use.

So my questions is, does vmware esxi 8 still need a raid card to work as previous version did as I don't want to boot esxi off a USB stick as it is on 24/7/365 so prefer to have the OS mirrored between 2 drives and then I have 2 drives which contain the VMs.

128GB is suitable for my requirements as it means i can give existing devices more ran where needed and will also allow for win11 and hopefully win 12 images to be deployed for testing purposes etc.

If I do still require a raid card, will the one I purchased for the gen 10 v1 ( HPE smart array E208i-p raid card ) be suitable or do I need a different one?

Just looking to get an idea of price for all this as I see the newer microserver gen 11 is more expensive than previous versions so want to get an idea of numbers and then decide if worth doing, bearing in mind I can potentially hopefully sell the gen 10 and get a bit of money back, albeit a bare unit.

Thanks all

Kev
 

Greg_E

Active Member
Oct 10, 2024
108
27
28
I have vSphere 8.0.2 running on little HP T740 with 64gb of ddr4 sodimm, a 128gb sata m.2 drive, and a consumer 1tb m.2 nvme drive. You'd need a network card as there are no Realtek allowed now. I put in Supermicro dual SFP+ cards for 10gbps connections. Even vCenter didn't complain. I have two of them upgraded to 8.0.3, need to configure vMotion to move vCenter so it's easier to upgrade the third host.

Keep in mind, this is all on a 1 year license through VMUG, I'm going to need to pass a VCP level course to keep that license.
 
Last edited:

kev2024

New Member
Jan 19, 2024
4
0
1
Thanks, interesting. I'm considering the microserver gen 11, anyone know if the raid card HPE smart array E208i-p raid card is compatible wit the microserver gen 10 and vmware 8?

Thanks

Kev
 
Last edited:

zachj

Active Member
Apr 17, 2019
222
133
43
If you want RAID then you’ll need a RAID card; ESXi doesn’t include a built-in software RAID functionality. VMware offers vSAN but it requires vcenter and on a single host it only supports RAID0; RAID1/5/10 require three or more hosts.

ESXi does officially support Intel VROC if your motherboard happens to support it, though this isn’t a well-trod path so you’re not going to find a ton of help online.

As far as your specific HPE RAID adapter, check VMware’s hardware compatibility list. Even if it says it’s not supported in 8.x, if it worked in 7.x it’ll work on 8.x too.
 

kev2024

New Member
Jan 19, 2024
4
0
1
Thanks, I have the card in my Gen 10 microserver running esxi 7 and works ok. Weirdly, the card according to the docs that is supported is the HPE Smart Array E208e-p SR Gen10 controller and I have the HPE Smart Array E208i-p so I presume I = internal and e = external as the ports on the e are at the back of the case to plug in whereas the I is inside the case? But it doesn't specify this card is compatible with gen 11 microserver or esxi 8.x hence not sure and I don't want to buy the microserever gen 11 as its a high price tag and then find out I need to buy a raid card as well as they are costly too. I realise I'll need a NIC card but not expecting that to be too costly, just need to find a decent intel one.

Currently have 2 drives mirrored for ESXi boot and 2 drives mirrored for data (3.5" SATA drives) but may consider changing to SSDs as cost of those has come down some what.

Kev
 

zachj

Active Member
Apr 17, 2019
222
133
43
If it works in v7 it’ll work on v8.

VMware changed the driver model when moving from v6 to v7 and that rendered a bunch of hardware incompatible with v7, but thankfully the same is not true when moving from v7 to v8.

it might not be officially supported but it works. I’ve got several vibs (drivers) installed on my v8 machine.