Finally I had some time left (no training at the moment) and took the opportunity to build a decent WhiteBox. This bare bone system contains an Intel QuadCPU and 8 GB of memory and still stays under $500 USD. Iāve installed the future version of ESX and it works like a charm. The first virtual machine I created is acting as my vCenter Server and I installed it while I was cooking dinner, great performance. The next step is installing Windows 7 (64 bit), but my good old friend Mike Laverick has beat me to it. Heās already showing some really cool VMware View stuff.Ā Iām still going to try out some of the new features anyway.
Hereās my shopping list:
Bare boneĀ Asus V2-P5G33
ProcessorĀ Intel(R) Core(TM) Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz
MemoryĀ GeiL 8 GB DDR2-667 Kit
StorageĀ Ā Samsung HD501LJ 500GB Internal SATA 16MB 7200RPM Hard Drive
NetworkĀ IntelĀ® PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter
DVD-ROMĀ Asus DVD-E818A3T
Two side notes. You can use a normal network card. It doesnāt have to be an IntelĀ® PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter, as long as itās an Intel PRO, the onboard Marvel adapter isnāt supported. Besides that, Iāve bought the wrong DVD-ROM. Thereās little support for IDE or PATA DVD-ROM devices so you better choose a SATA DVD-ROM, otherwise the setup will crash,Ā asking you for the install media.Ā My listĀ is no guarantee, maybe the final ESX release isnāt working on thisĀ configuration. Have fun with it.
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