Virtualization: Testing Proxmox and ESXi

After evaluating my home environment I thought it was time to repurpose the home server into a dedicated host for virtual machines. Ideally one of these will run my Minecraft server and as time goes on I might find other uses that I can launch additional VMs for. 

However instead of running a Type 2 Hypervisor, such as a Oracle Virtualbox on top of a Window 11 machine, I wanted to see if I could get a Type 1 Hypervisor to run bare metal. I have some experience working with VMware workstation and vSphere, but not installing one. So this is a documentation of my journey, more than a  guide. Note that VMware ESXi did not work on my Dell Optiplex, because it did not find the ethernet adapter. So then I tried Proxmox instead.

Downloading the .iso for ESXi

1. I started downloading the software which required me to register on Broadcoms website. In the top corner I clicked on register and followed a simple registration process.

2. After login in I went to the free downloads portal and looked for "VMware vSphere Hypervisor".

3. There I clicked my way to version 8.0U3e. I had to accept an agreement before I could download the .iso with the cloud icon. The download itself was just about 600mb and it is already licenced.

Installation issues with the .iso for ESXi

According to guides online it is as simple as booting from the .iso.

So I was going to put that to the test, but first - backup the current installation of course!

I wrote the .iso to a USB and booted from it, so far so good, but in the middle of the installation I ran into a common problem, the ethernet adapter was not supported by the OS. So here the journey ended.

Going with Proxmox instead.

I started by getting the .iso and wrote it to a USB with Rufus.

Then I booted my server from the .ISO and let it install. One learning I took away from this was that I had to put AHCI mode instead of the RAID, this is because the Proxmox installation didn't find the harddrive.

After a while I was faced with a login screen on the computer and an IP. This was my cue to get on my usual computer and browse into the IP.

The username is defaulted to "root", password is the password you set up in the installation.

You get into a view that is segmented into "datacenter", "username", "localnetwork", "local (username)" and "local-lvm (username)".

Creating my first test VM

My first takeaway here was to upload the .iso that you want into the segment called "local (username)" and ISO-images. It is a simple upload.

Next step is to press the segment just called "username" and do the create VM button.

You fill in name, ID, select cores and an amount of RAM that will be sufficient.

I had some easily fixed issues in my first attempts, too many cores and too much ram.

After fixing that I could start it with no issues. Surprisingly enough even the network worked.

I loaded in a Win11 x64 .iso with 8gb om ram and a couple of cores to do my first testing.

After that it was a usual Windows setup.

Updating the Proxmox

You can either login on the computer directly, or use SSH root@ipaddress with your password.

Then do the usual apt-get upgrade -y && apt-get update -y and you will update the OS.