Nested vSphere 6.5 Home Lab Configuration

Here are the details I used for my nested ESXi 6.5 deployment in my home lab. The OVA and it’s configuration is provided by William Lam from virtuallyghetto.com.

Host Configuration:

• Dell XPS 8700
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz
• 16GB of Memory (My next upgrade will be to bump my server to 32GB)
• 250GB and 500GB Samsung EVO SSDs for my all-flash VSAN implementation. (Need to add another 500-1TB SSD)

Virtual Appliance Configuration:

• ESXi 6.5 Appliance OVA provided by virtuallyGhetto
• Guest Type: ESXi 6.5
• Virtual Hardware 11
• 2 vCPU
• 6GB vMEM
• 2 x VMXNET vNIC
• 1 x PVSCSI Adapter
• 1 x 2GB HDD (ESXi Installation)
• 1 x 4GB SSD (for use w/VSAN, empty by default)
• 1 x 8GB SSD (for use w/VSAN, empty by default)
• VHV added
• dvFilter Mac Learn VMX params added
• disk.enableUUID VMX param added
• VSAN traffic tagged on vmk0
• Disabled VSAN device monitoring for home labs
• VMFS6 will be used if user selects to create VMFS volume