Comments on: VMWare ESX v3.5 on Cheap PC Hardware

By: Micronauts » Blog Archive » Project: HomeLab

Micronauts » Blog Archive » Project: HomeLab — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:25:32 +0000

[...] http://www.techhead.co.uk/building-a-low-cost-cheap-vmware-esx-test-server http://vinf.net/2008/01/14/vmware-esx-v35-on-cheap-pc-hardware/ Posted in Daily, Projects | No Comments » Leave a [...]

By: VMware ESX(i) Home Lab – Why, What and How? Considerations when building your own home lab. | TechHead.co.uk

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:59:47 +0000

[...] VMware ESX v3.5 on Cheap PC Hardware (vinf – Simon Gallagher) [...]

By: Building your own VMware vSphere lab – A step by step guide. Part 1 – Lab Overview | TechHead.co.uk

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:48:30 +0000

[...] such as vinf.net have looked towards a desktop white box solution such as the HP D530 for hosting their ESX [...]

By: vinf

vinf — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:33:13 +0000

That would indicate you don’t have an ESX compatible NIC or SATA controller, the HCL is pretty limited with ESX when it comes to whitebox kit – this URL might help you find a compatible one http://vm-help.com/esx40i/esx40_whitebox_HCL.php (this is for ESX4, but there is a link in there for a 3.5 list)

By: velmueugan

velmueugan — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:27:11 +0000

Hi,

I purchased new computer.the configuration is i3 530 2.9Ghz processor,DH55TC Motherboard,2GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM,500GB Seagate Sata Harddisk,Samsun Sata DVD drive.i am trying to install VMware ESX 3.5.But it’s showing error “Unable to find a supported device to write the VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 image to and No driver found. Select Driver/Use a Driver Disk/Back”.How to install VMWare ESX 3.5.also i am install ESX 4.0.it’s showing error”No compatible network adapter found.please consult the products” and “Network-adapters returned critical failure” in vmkernal mode (ALT+F12).

I enabled VT technology in bios,

http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/DH55TC/DH55TC-overview.htm

Please help me.Thanks in advance,Velmurugan

By: Patrick Unterweg

Patrick Unterweg — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:25:49 +0000

I can only agree – great!

By: Cheap vSphere Server « Virtualization, Windows, Infrastructure and all that “stuff” in-between

Thu, 21 May 2009 07:41:15 +0000

[...] supporting nested VMs and physical ESX to virtual ESX vMotion! unfortunately it won’t run on my trusty old HP D530 desktops which I’ve used to run ESX 3.5 over the last year or [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:03:20 +0000

If someone would be kind enough to help me out I would greatly appreciate it.

I’m trying to put together an ESX 3.5 U3 whitebox.
My hardware is as follows:
Motherboard– INTEL BOXDG33BUC G33 775
CPU– INTEL Q9400 2.66G 775 45N
Memory– 2Gx4|OCZ OCZ2P8008GQ
Harddrive– 300G|WEST DIGITAL WD3000HLFS
DVD– HP 1170I 22X Sata
NIC– INTEL PWLA8391GTLBLK 1000M

Currently, when trying to install after it copies the files to the hard drive and begins installation, after a few percent, I receive the following error message:
Error Installing Package
There was an error installing glibc-common-2.3.2-95.50. This can indicate
media failure, lack of disk space, and/or hardware problems. This is a fatal
error and your install will be aborted. Please verify your media and try
your install again.

Also, I received the same for compat-libstdc++-7.3-2.96.128 on another installation attempt.

Thanks in advance.

By: ALVARO ANTON » Building a Home VMware Infrastructure Lab

ALVARO ANTON » Building a Home VMware Infrastructure Lab — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:44:27 +0000

[...] Other PC [...]

By: Brett

Brett — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:22:59 +0000

HP ML115 G5 QUAD Cores are ~$600 wherever I’ve found them. I can’t find them on ServersDirect at all. From the looks of it, the ML110/ML115 are hard to come by, and not priced anywhere near what they were in December and January, they’re about 60-70% more than the prices I’d seen listed here and on Kiwi Si’s blog.

The one that I can find for $600 has the quad core processor, 2gb of RAM, 1x250GGB HDD, single GB NIC, and a DVD burner. I just can’t find the model that is exactly like you and Kiwi found. So that has led me to look elsewhere.

Whitebox Alternative:
This is about the best I can do if I whitebox the whole thing from new egg and ebay. From what I gather, the NIC and the RAID controller are what’s important, so I made sure that they are both well listed as being compatible before I put this list together.

CPU – AMD Athlong 64 X2 5000 2.6GHz ($57)
2x HDD – WD Caviar SE 160GB SATA II ($84.00)
Case – Black Rosewill Mid Tower ($30)
PSU – RAIDMAX RX-380k 380w ($15)
RAM – 8GB G.SKILL DDR2-800 ($89.98)
RAID – Promise PCI SATA II TX4
MOBO – GIGABYTE GA-MA78GPM-DS2H Micro ATX
DVDRW – Samsung 22X DVD+/-R ($27)
NIC – Intel Dual NIC Pro\1000MT ($31)

+$30.00 Shipping = ~$530.

The mobo claims that it will support 16GB, and it will take an AM2+ socket Quad Core Phenom processor, to which I can upgrade when they are ~$50.00 a year from now, heheh.

If I am more patient and I watch the Hot Deals on Fatwallet.com, then I can build the aforementioned system through different vendors for ~$50-60 less.

Any suggestions other than these 2 options?

Thanks again for all of your help!