Why bother VMware ESXi?

[Elpee]

Guys,

These days I have seen a lot of (more then 80%) people who posted up here in this forum about their issues/ problems are running/ involving VMware ESXi. Unless you currently have trouble with your drivers what mostly forces you to switch to VMware ESXi. Why don't you just install XPEno directly to your bare metal and it saves a lot of headaches and time as well? I a year ago also tried to run VMware ESXi on my Nas, and a few months later I kicked it out. I definitely caused trouble on myself. All my Nases are now bare metal installed.

Yes, guys, please tell us justifiable reasons why your nas running on VMware ESXi?

Thanks and cheers...

[Dutchman]

Guys,

These days I have seen a lot of (more then 80%) people who posted up here in this forum about their issues/ problems are running/ involving VMware ESXi. Unless you currently have trouble with your drivers what mostly forces you to switch to VMware ESXi. Why don't you just install XPEno directly to your bare metal and it saves a lot of headaches and time as well? I a year ago also tried to run VMware ESXi on my Nas, and a few months later I kicked it out. I definitely caused trouble on myself. All my Nases are now bare metal installed.

Yes, guys, please tell us justifiable reasons why your nas running on VMware ESXi?

Thanks and cheers...

 

because my hardware has much more power and i want to use it for more solutions than just running a NAS ?

Very simple, i dont by an xeon system with 16gig of memory to centralise my stuff and waist it for an NAS.

 

If i would have old non-performing hardware i would use bare metal, but come one.... i will not put several machines in my home to fill space, i big ass system handles all welcome in the 21 century of virtualisation, i run:

 

- automation

- NAS

- Domotica solutions

- File interactions

- etc etc etc

[Diverge]

What dutchman said. VM's are awesome I've never had an issue running a DSM VM in ESXI, and have been playing with DSM on 3rd party hardware before this site existed thanks to Vortex

[cuspess]

Want to add that, because VMware is like a windows operating system. Despite the variant of win7 vista win10, once you had it installed, compatibility will almost be the same on any pc/servers from different brand/make/vendor; less compatible problem versus baremetal. That is not to say baremetal will have issues, but dsm updating error all over this forum seem to be less likely if it is on vmware than baremetal.

[error403]

You also can migrate to a new server quite easily.

Also, my server is way too powerful to "waste" those resources to DSM. It runs other VMs (Windows, Linux) when I need those OS too.

Also, you can install Debian as a second server os for tasks DSM cannot do on the same physical machine.

Also, depending on your configuration, you can do snapshots. If one update kills your DSM, you just revert.

[haydibe]

With ESXi you are litteraly running on the same virtual hardware like everyone else who is using DSM on ESXi.

Once the vmware storage and network drivers are backed in into the bootloader, there are no huge surprieses to expect.

 

On baremetal systems you need to have hardware that is supported which is less likely if the device is not commonly used.

 

Though, if you are not able to forward a storage controller with direct-io into your vm, you will end up loosing access to the SMART informations of your drives. Unless you have a cpu that supports vt-d and have supported storage controller to add to your box, direct-io is not an option

 

In the past i had severall vms with dedicated services up and running, nowadays I have severall DSM instances that provide those services as Docker Containers. Thus, no need for dedicated vms anymore. Each box has one DSM instane with a forwarded storage controller + a vmdk hosted on a ssh for my "NAS-DSM", while the other DSM instances just have a ssd vmdk-drive for my "Docker-DSMs".

 

In order to realy benefit from ESXi your box should have a fast cpu with vt-d support, lots of ram (>=8GB) and off course an additional supported storage controller. Would i recommend ESXi anyway if the cpu is not fast and/or has no vt-d support, the ram is less than 8gb or no physical storage contoller can be mapped into the vm... hell no! But then again if baremetal is not possible due unsupported drivers, but your box is supported by ESXi, it might become an option unless SMART information is not a must have for you...