Intel NUC and VMware ESXi 7 Home Lab Server Build

It was about time I refreshed my 2x Dell R710 servers in my home lab. I got a small but powerful Intel NUC and installed free VMware ESXi 7 hypervisor on there. I documented the install with this video as well as an article with detailed steps.

// JOIN THE COMMUNITY!

We're here to serve F5's Community through message forums, technical articles, videos and live streams. DevCentral is the place to get answers, share solutions, learn more about F5 and stay connected with F5 experts.

Find all our platform links below and follow our Community Evangelists!

Your Community Evangelists:

[kevinbiondi]

I purchased the nuc, memory, and storage like you suggested. I was able to build the iso with a new power shell on my windows 11 pc and use rufus to make an installable usb drive. Piece of cake! My esxi host on my Nuc is up and running! Thanks for the great video!

[x]

Awesome! I just picked up a pair of NUC11's as well for a recent upgrade to my home lab. Amazed with the performance & only sad that I didn't try them sooner.

[sapier]

Just bought a NUC to replace an old Thinkserver that just broke down. Your guide will be very useful for me to reestablish my esxi server. Lucky for my the drives for the old server still work and i can just register the vms again.

[kydo]

Great tutorial! went through with no problems. Used balena etcher for the bootable usb. Much appreciated!

[karcinoma]

Good LORD that looked painful. Fiddling and mucking around with all the commands and stuff. But That little Nuc is a REAL powerhouse! Excellent video you have produced from start to finish my good man!

[sferia]

Can you create a image of the USB? Thanks

[MrSkinny]

This failed for me Im getting an error
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot : Failed to initialize the VMware.ImageBuilder PowerCLI module because of error: Failed to load
VibSign Python module. Make sure OpenSSL 1.1 is installed.

[kmo]

Just used the unaltered ESXi 8.0U2 iso from VMWare and all drivers are working on my NUC10, including the network driver.

[stephanmanthey]

Nice one. I´m still using a SUPERMICRO X10SDV-8C+-LN2F - Motherboard - Mini-ITX - Intel Xeon D-1540 (MBD-X10SDV-8C+-LN2FO) with 64 GByte RAM and a 1 TByte 970 PRO M.2 SSD, but a NUC would be probably the next step. I have a VMUG subscription to run a BIG-IQ VE licence manager, a couple of BIG-IP VE lab instances and a CentOS for routing, DNS, NTP, RADIUS on it.
Thanks for your video!

[Anuituu]

Hi, what can we do with VM backup+restore in ESXi (free)?

Is it only available with 3rd party tools?

Can we schedule the task?
Thanks for any suggestion.

[Mike-klyc]

Thank you! Going to try this on an intel nuc i7 gen 8 BEH.

[CompletelyLawless]

Do they offer this evaluation license key for v8? Anyone install 8 on their NUC?

[AznGlenny]

Thanks for the video. I was able to create a VM in exsi and I powed on, but I couldn't login the VM through my other computers. Please advise. Thank you again.

[alfarashfidqy]

what is the command "Add-EsxSoftwareDepot" equal in ubuntu?

[sokhakho]

i want to make my old desktop for my lab server how can i do?

[wikoo]

is the NUC port support trunking port if let say i want to connect it to my managed switch?

[Peltwerk]

Any updates on if the NUC is compatible and still a good option for vSphere 8?

[johnchavez]

Hi, I am new in this topics, I have a MacBook M1, can I buy the NUC and run in my Mac to implement environments that need x64 architecture ?

[cosmiccollapse]

Have you considered using proxmox? Or did you need VMware for a particular use case?

[tws]

i did this on my old mac mini late 2012, runs well, but what i see with your nuc pc it is a lot more powerful.