VMware's ESXi on a GK3?

[dragonpoo]

Hi everyone!

Since I haven't seen anything (in the new forums, at least) about any success or failure running VMware's ESXi on a GK3, I might as well document my progress in case anyone is interested. I realise these minipc's are really not meant for this type of load, but I enjoy this kind of testing. Besides, 8GB of RAM would technically allow me to run 2-3 systems at the same time, right? I'm not looking at the greatest performance, just seeing it it'll work or not.

I installed the latest 7.0 on a USB drive and it started booting, but hung before it completed. I didn't want to pursue it too far.

I installed the latest 6.7 (build 18828794) on the same USB drive, and it booted just fine, but it is missing Realtek drivers, so there's no network connectivity at the moment. I've been searching and found plenty of details about putting the r8168 drivers into the image, so that's the step I'm working on now.

(possible search terms: VMware, ESXi, ESX, Hypervisor, vCenter, vSphere)

[admin]

I would look for some superusers who are proficient in virtual machines to do the research for you. This is a very meaningful thing.
Starting in March, I will arrange some machines for superusers to test the experience, and higher configuration can indeed do more things. Please keep looking forward.

[dragonpoo]

I would look for some superusers who are proficient in virtual machines to do the research for you. This is a very meaningful thing.
Starting in March, I will arrange some machines for superusers to test the experience, and higher configuration can indeed do more things. Please keep looking forward.

Hi @admin, thanks for your encouragement. I am one of those superusers (it's what I do for work), I'm just used to working with business-level hardware that's supported by default.

The good news is, I was able to successfully get the Realtek driver embedded into my ESXi image, and it booted and worked just fine. I'm reluctant to replace the Windows install on the M.2 Drive, so I'll try putting a 2.5" drive in and run a few test VMs on it, and see how performance is. The J4125 is a slow processor, but for basic use, it might be sufficient to run 1-2 simultaneous systems.

By the way, if you are willing to have me test some of those upcoming systems, please let me know. It would be fun!

[neongreen]

My god. I have to Skull Canyon NUC's that is about as low as I would go for ESXi. I am sure you can get the console loaded but given you have not posted about this sense January. I am going to assume it did not do very well. Getting it to boot is one thing but ESXI is pretty specific with there hardware. Trust me when I tell you I run production and homelab servers and have for 10+ years now. This will be grossly underpowered for this application. You might get away with a single VM. Might.

[dragonpoo]

My god. I have to Skull Canyon NUC's that is about as low as I would go for ESXi. I am sure you can get the console loaded but given you have not posted about this sense January. I am going to assume it did not do very well. Getting it to boot is one thing but ESXI is pretty specific with there hardware. Trust me when I tell you I run production and homelab servers and have for 10+ years now. This will be grossly underpowered for this application. You might get away with a single VM. Might.

Hey NeonGreen, thanks for your interest!

Performance was actually pretty decent on this. I had it running for about two months, and it was stable and pretty fast, considering the J4125 and 8GB of RAM. I had one Linux server (2GB RAM) and a Windows 10 VM (4GB RAM) that I ran concurrently. I even joined it to my vCenter on a different system. I was surprised how well everything ran. Keep in mind, I didn't image the included SSD, but I took advantage of the SATA connection to have a secondary SSD for my VMFS, and I booted off a USB drive with ESXi on it.

My main reason for this was just to see if I could do it. Like I said, 7.0 wouldn't work but 6.7 was fine. My homelab has better systems in it, so I ended up going back to Windows to use Win11 on it.