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Homelab

5th Gen Intel NUC with 32GB Memory

Intel NUCs with ESXi are being used as home servers and in many home labs. If you are generally interested in running ESXi on Intel NUCs, read this post first. Officially, it is limited to 16GB memory which might come a little bit short for virtualization labs. Recently Crucial has launched 16GB DDR3L modules for an affordable price (Intelligent Memory was the first in the market with 16GB modules, but they were quite expensive). I've ordered two Crucial 16GB modules (CT204864BF160B) and tested them in my 5th Gen Intel NUC (NUC5i5MYHE).

crucial-16-gb-module

Read More »5th Gen Intel NUC with 32GB Memory

USB 3.0 devices detected as USB 2 in ESXi 6.0 and 5.5

In my latest post USB Devices as VMFS Datastore in vSphere ESXi 6.0 I had a problem with USB 3.0 devices that are detected as USB 2 in ESXi. I know that USB 3.0, also known as eXtensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI), is supported in ESXi 6.0 and ESXi 5.5 Build 2143827 or later. Unfortunately all of my devices are detected as USB 2.1, despite the USB 3 hub was visible. This problem applies to both, USB devices in path-through mode, and USB devices mounted from the command line with usbarbitrator disabled. The solution was quite simple and not related to an ESXi, but to a UEFI configuration.
xhci-smart-auto

Read More »USB 3.0 devices detected as USB 2 in ESXi 6.0 and 5.5

USB Devices as VMFS Datastore in vSphere ESXi 6.0

In the last years I've seen many requests in forums and blogs where people are trying to use USB devices like USB sticks or external hard disks as VMFS formatted datastore. It was actually possible in vSphere 5, but very picky. Some USB flash drives were working, others not. In vSphere 6, this behavior has been changed obviously. This post explains how you can use USB devices as datastore on your ESXi host. Of course, this is neither a supported, nor a performant storage solution, so use at your own risk.Read More »USB Devices as VMFS Datastore in vSphere ESXi 6.0

Adding a second NIC to a 5th Gen Intel NUC (Or other PCIe Cards)

NUC5i5MYHE-with-external-nic-squareIntel NUCs with ESXi are being used as home servers and in many home labs. If you are generally interested in running ESXi on Intel NUCs, read this post first. One major drawback is that they only have a single network port. There are USB NICs in the market, but with ESXi hosts, only work in path-through mode. That means that USB NICs can only be used inside VMs and not for the hypervisor itself as vmnic.

The slightly older 4th Gen NUCs had a Mini PCIe slot that allowed an additional NIC to be installed. With that port, it was possible to install a Syba Mini PCIe NIC for example. Nevertheless, the adapter is unsupported with ESXi and did not fit into the NUC chassis, there are solutions.

Unfortunately, the 5th Gen NUC no longer has a Mini PCIe slot. Instead, it has M.2 slots. An easy solution would be a M.2 NIC, but until today there are no such cards available. In this post, I will explain the possibilities of using PCIe cards with the M.2 slot to upgrade the 5th Gen NUC with additional NICs or other cards like Fibre Channel HBAs.

Read More »Adding a second NIC to a 5th Gen Intel NUC (Or other PCIe Cards)

VMware Homeserver – ESXi on 5th Gen Intel NUC

Intel NUCs are not officially supported by VMware but they are very widespread in many homlabs or test environments. They are small, silent, transportable and have a very low power consumption, making it a great server for your homelab. I've posted a preview at the beginning of the year and got my first 5th Gen NUC up and running in February. Today all versions of the NUC, including the flagship with the i7 CPU, are available in the market. Time to give it a more detailed review

esxi-5th-gen-nuc

5th Gen Intel NUCs are available with an Intel i3, i5 or i7 CPU. The Intel i3 and i5 are available with and without 2.5" slot where the i7 is only available with 2.5". With the NUC5i5MYHE there is also a i5 model with a faster vPro CPU.

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VMware Homelab in 2015 - Systems Revised with vSphere 6

hp-microserver-2.5-ssdIn the past three years I've presented several systems that can be used for VMware Homelabs. Servers for home use are typically not rack based. A good home server is inexpensive, silent and has a low power consumption. In this post I am going to revise the systems presented in previous posts to see how they work with ESXi 6.0:

  • HP Microserver N36L / N40L / N54L
  • HP Microserver Gen8
  • Intel Next Unit of Computing (NUC)
  • Gigabyte BRIX
  • VMware Workstation

Read More »VMware Homelab in 2015 - Systems Revised with vSphere 6

ESXi 6.0 Image for Gigabyte BRIX

The ESXi 6.0 base image provided by VMware does not work with Gigabyte BRIX out of the box. This post explains how to create a customized ESXi 6 ISO for your Gigabyte BRIX. These images can be used to do a fresh install or upgrade a BRIX to VMware ESXi 6.0.brix-pro

The Image works for the following BRIX:

  • GB-BXi3-4010: Intel Core i3-4010U (2x 1.7GHz)
  • GB-BXi5-4200: Intel Core i5-4200U (2x 2.6GHz)
  • GB-BXi7-4500: Intel Core i7-4500U (2x 3.0GHz)
  • GB-BXi3H-4010: Intel Core i3-4010U (2x 1.7GHz)
  • GB-BXi5H-4200: Intel Core i5-4200U (2x 2.6GHz)
  • GB-BXi7H-4500: Intel Core i7-4500U (2x 3.0GHz)
  • GB-BXi5-4570R: Intel Core i5-4570R (4x 3.20 GHz)
  • GB-BXi7-4770R: Intel Core i7-4770R (4x 3.90 GHz)

Read More »ESXi 6.0 Image for Gigabyte BRIX

How to fix ESXi on Intel NUC malformed Manufacturer and Model

VMware ESXi 5.x and 6.0 installed on a 5th gen Intel NUC (NUC5i7RYH, NUC5i5RYH, NUC5i5MYHE, NUC5i5RYK, NUC5i3RYH, NUC5i3MYHE and NUC5i3RYK) has a problem with SMBios system information.

  • Manufacturer and Model in the vSphere Client is displayed with replacement characters (� black diamond with a white question mark).
    5th-gen-nuc-manufacturer
  • Adding host to a vCenter Server fails with the following error message

    A general system error occurred: at line number 7, not well-formed (invalid token)

To solve this problem you have to replace the BIOS. This post explains how to create a customized BIOS with changed SMBios variables and install it on your NUC.

Read More »How to fix ESXi on Intel NUC malformed Manufacturer and Model

ESXi 6.0 Image for Intel NUC

ESXi 6.0 requires a little tweak to run without problems on an Intel NUC. This post explains how to create a customized ESXi 6 ISO for your 4th and 5th gen. Intel NUC. The images can be used to do a fresh install or upgrade a NUC to VMware ESXi 6.0.esxi-on-5th-gen-NUC5i3MYHE

The Image works for the following NUCs:

  • Intel NUC D54250WYK
  • Intel NUC D34010WYK
  • Intel NUC D54250WYKH
  • Intel NUC D34010WYKH
  • Intel NUC5i7RYH
  • Intel NUC5i5RYH
  • Intel NUC5i5MYHE
  • Intel NUC5i5RYK
  • Intel NUC5i3RYH
  • Intel NUC5i3MYHE
  • Intel NUC5i3RYK

Read More »ESXi 6.0 Image for Intel NUC

How to Install ESXi on 5th Gen Intel NUC (NIC and AHCI Fix)

Intel has begun to deliver their 5th Gen Broadwell NUCs. At the moment, only NUCs with i3 CPUs are available. NUCs with faster CPUs are available in the next few weeks. I could get my hands on the NUC5i3MYHE. That's the version with a 2.5" HDD slot and without integrated WLAN. This post quickly explains how to get ESXi running on the 5th Gen NUC. As known from 3th and 4th gen NUCs, it is not possible to use the ESXi Installer provided by VMware.esxi-on-5th-gen-NUC5i3MYHE

I'm confident that this guide will also work for i5 and i7 NUCs, as from what I've seen in the documentation they have identical controllers:

  • Intel NUC5i7RYH
  • Intel NUC5i5RYH
  • Intel NUC5i5MYHE
  • Intel NUC5i5RYK
  • Intel NUC5i3RYH
  • Intel NUC5i3MYHE
  • Intel NUC5i3RYK

Read More »How to Install ESXi on 5th Gen Intel NUC (NIC and AHCI Fix)