Minimum system requirements for installing ESXi 5.0

 

ESXi 5.0

 

64-bit Processor

• ESXi 5.0 installs and run only on servers with 64-bit x86 CPUs.
• ESXi 5.0 requires a host machine with at least two cores.
• ESXi 5.0 supports only LAHF and SAHF CPU instructions.
• Known 64-bit processors:
  
  • All AMD Opteron processors
  • All Intel Xeon 3000/3200, 3100/3300, 5100/5300, 5200/5400, 5500/5600, 7100/7300, 7200/7400, and 7500 processors
    

RAM

• 2GB RAM minimum.
  
  
  
  

Network Adapters

One or more Gigabit or 10Gb Ethernet controllers. For a list of supported network adapter models, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

SCSI Adapter, Fibre Channel Adapter or Internal RAID Controller

Any combination of one or more of the following controllers:

• Basic SCSI controllers. Adaptec Ultra-160 or Ultra-320, LSI Logic Fusion-MPT, or most NCR/Symbios SCSI.
• RAID controllers. Dell PERC (Adaptec RAID or LSI MegaRAID), HP Smart Array RAID, or IBM (Adaptec) ServeRAID controllers.
  

Installation and Storage

• SCSI disk or a local, non-network, RAID LUN with unpartitioned space for the virtual machines.
• For Serial ATA (SATA), a disk connected through supported SAS controllers or supported on-board SATA controllers. SATA disks will be considered remote, not local. These disks will not be used as a scratch partition by default because they are seen as remote.
  

ESXi 5.0 supports installing on and booting from the following storage systems:

• SATA disk drives. SATA disk drives connected behind supported SAS controllers or supported on-board
• SATA controllers. Supported SAS controllers include:
  
  • LSI1068E (LSISAS3442E)
  • LSI1068 (SAS 5)
  • IBM ServeRAID 8K SAS controller
  • Smart Array P400/256 controller
  • Dell PERC 5.0.1 controller
    
• Supported on-board SATA include:
  
  • Intel ICH9
  • NVIDIA MCP55
  • ServerWorks HT1000
    
• Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) disk drives. Supported for installing ESXi 5.0 and for storing virtual machines on VMFS partitions.
• Dedicated SAN disk on Fibre Channel or iSCSI
• USB devices. Supported for installing ESXi 5.0. For a list of supported USB devices, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.
  

Make sure your hardware is compliant by referring to the Hardware Compatibility Guide.

For additional information, see vSphere Installation and Setup 5.0.