Home Lab Upgrades! Assembling an Intel NUC11 & Installing VMware ESX 7

I had the opportunity recently to invest a little in upgrading my home lab. I decided on picking up two Intel NUC11 Performance mini PCs, which will run my VMware ESX lab. In this video, we'll walk through what I bought & why, assembling the Intel NUCs, and installing/configuring ESX (including building a custom install image for the NUC drivers).

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Thanks for watching!
- Matt

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Chapters:
0:00 - Intro & Current Lab info
1:35 - Parts List
3:18 - Intel NUC Assembly
6:49 - Building Custom ESX Install Image with NUC Drivers
11:08 - Checking NUC BIOS Settings
12:33 - Installing ESX on Intel NUC
14:48 - ESX Local Console Config (Management Network)
16:52 - Installing Custom Drivers via ESXCLI
20:10 - Configuring vMotion Network
21:49 - Connecting to Synology iSCSI
24:07 - Add New Host to vSphere
25:30 - vMotion Performance Test over 2.5GbE

Standard Disclaimer: Any comments / opinions here are my own, and do not represent my current or former employers.

[DCODev]

This is an excellent tutorial and guide. Thank you for putting this together! I learned a lot along the way as well. I have a cluster of 4 NUCs (11th GEN) now to instantiate all the VM's. Thanks again mate!

[aboyd]

Really great video. I used to it to build my own NUC11 as an ESXi server

[RaduUrsache]

Amazing video, explanation and pacing! Found your channel via youtube recommendations and i’ve subscribed!

[gwensley]

Excellent video....literally the same thing I am doing in my home lab! Great step by step!

[psilan]

Great video. I have been running a bunch of VMs on a NUC11 Performance for about a year now. So stable.
Trying to get a second NUC11 now. It's just painful with only one.

[hoselupf]

Many Thanks
This worked flawless for me.

[loicgregoire]

Thanks, make me want to buy a second NUC and make a cluster

PS : you should share affiliate link of what you're presenting ;)

[Morpheus]

Great video. Im a Mac user, find it hard to compile those new iso files with the Nic fling driver .

[wyc]

Hi my friend. I am using the same as your lab but It's NUC11THNHv7( Dual ethernet). With ESXi 7.0U3g. I face an issue. While I shut down the Intel NUC (By ESXi). The NUC will auto Power on after shutdown. ( After Power Failure to Power off) It doesn't work. I have unplugged the plug....!@#$!@$@

Do you have the same issue?

[LeicaM]

VMware is pretty expensive right? I would prefer a layer 1 hypervisor today.

[s.b.asokadissanayake]

I use only Linux on the NUC.
Linux does the configuration automatically.
Then I stick any of my SSD s and run it in few seconds.
In five minutes I booted five of my Linux distributions in 5 minutes.

[oliverksiazek]

Very interesting video. Many thanks for that .
Have you also reinstalled / moved the vcenter on the NUC ? What are the prerequisites in regards for VRAM, Vcpu and vdisk ? With a nuc ?

Many thanks in advance

[LCMinato]

Nice video mate. Just one question, I see you have to bundle the networking driver into the ISO, on the download page in the instructions it is said this is for Intel NUC 11, mine is 12, any thoughts about if I need to do that or could I proceed the installation and install the driver later ?

[rechiecebreros]

the cpu boost of this cpu can reach upto 4.7ghz, can are you going to enable that? Or is it auto? or need to do at bios?, I have read a new intel nuc is discontinued but I'm planning to get one as my current server can only work up to esxi 6.5. hoope you can advise. thanks.

[geirleirvik]

I have a new NUC 12 pro, so then you need to disable the efficiency cores of the gen 13 i7

[LampJustin]

Awesome, the only thing you forgot to cover is migrating the vSwitch to a distributed vSwitch ;)

[karimsukkar]

Great video, out of interest do you need to use the USB driver if you're using the duel nic nuc array or should it be able to run with the community fling network driver

[kimsonvu]

Very nice! What do you do with a lot of VM machine on ESXI?

[sole]

Unreal video!! Would this work with a cheaper option like Intel NUC RNUC11PAHi50001 (i5)/is it worth it? I'm looking to do something like this. I want a home server to run VMware that will be quiet -- not like my dell poweredge that sounds like a jet engine. Any suggestions?