Home Lab – vSphere Home Lab build on Intel NUC

Being a Technical Account Manager with VMware, I finally came around to start my own small home lab. I am a home lab beginner.

Reading blogs like Virtually Ghetto and Virten helped me choosing the following hardware components:

• Intel NUC Kit NUC7I3BNH
• 2x 16 GB SODIMM, DDR4, 2133 MHz
• Internal SSD 960 GB (vSAN Capacity Disk)
• NVMe M.2 240 GB (vSAN Cache Disk)
• SanDisk Cruizer Fit 16 GB (Boot Disk)
• SanDisk Ultra Fit 64 GB (Scratch Disk)

Started with installing ESXi 6.7U3. We used a Rufus like tool to create a USB installation media from the bootable ISO.

Next was the VCSA (Center Server Appliance 6.7. When installing the VCSA using the OVA it turned out to that the installation did not complete. Using the installer instead, the installation of the VCSA succeeded. Last step to get my home lab more interesting was implementing vSAN 6.7.

Next on the list – upgrade to vSphere 7.

Startpoint was the upgrade of the vCenter Server. I used the instructions from VirtualG.uk to upgrade the VCSA vom 6.7 to 7.0.

Next up, the upgrade from vSphere 6.7 to 7.0. If you do a version upgrade for the very first time, make sure you follow step-by-step instructions – like on vdr.one – How to upgrade vCenter 6.7 to 7.0.

Luckily, there are many vExperts who share their knowledge via blog posts or Youtube.