Intel's 7th Gen NUC is currently rolled out and after a resolved issue with the NIC driver, it's time to take a look at their capabilities as homeserver running VMware ESXi. NUCs are not officially supported by VMware but they are very widespread in many homelabs or test environments. They are small, silent, transportable and have a very low power consumption, making it a great server for your homelab. I've posted a preview of the new models about 2 months ago. Gen7 NUCs are available with i3, i5 and i7 CPU.
Features
- 7th Gen Intel Kaby Lake CPU
- Up to 32GB of DDR4 SODIMM memory
- Available with and without 2.5″ HDD slot
- M.2 slot for PCIe or X4 Gen 3 NVMe
- External Micro SDXC Slot
- Intel I219-V Gigabit Network Adapter
- Thunderbolt 3 Port (USB-C)
- Intel Optane Memory Ready
The Kit is shipped with:
- Chassis (115x111x51mm)
- System board
- Processor (soldered)
- Power adapter for different countries
- Power cord
- VESA bracket
To get an ESXi Host installed you additionally need:
- Memory (1.2V DDR4-2133 SODIMM)
- M.2 SSD (22×42 or 22×80), 2.5″ HDD or USB-Stick
Model comparison
| Model (2.5") | NUC7i7BNH | NUC7i5BNH | NUC7i3BNH |
| no 2.5" Slot | - | NUC7i5BNK | NUC7i3BNK |
| Architecture | Kaby Lake (14 nm) | ||
| CPU | Intel Core i7-7567U | Intel Core i5-7260U | Intel Core i3-7100U |
| Base Frequency | 3.5 GHz | 2.2 GHz | 2.4 GHz |
| Max Frequency | 4.0 GHz | 3.4 GHz | 2.4 GHz |
| Cores | 2 (4 Threads) | ||
| TDP | 28 W | 15 W | 15 W |
| TDP-down | 23 W | 9.5 W | 7.5 W |
| Memory Type | 2x 260-pin 1.2 V DDR4 2133 MHz SO-DIMM | ||
| Max Memory | 32 GB | ||
| USB Ports | 2x USB 3.0 (front panel) 2x USB 3.0 (back panel) 2x USB 2.0 (internal header) | ||
| Thunderbolt 3 Port (40Gbps) | Yes | Yes | No |
| USB 3.1 Gen 2 Port (10Gbps) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Storage | M.2 22x42/80 slot for SATA3 or PCIe X4 Gen3 NVMe OR AHCI SSD SATA3 2.5" HDD/SDD SDXC Slot | ||
| LAN | Intel I219-V Gigabit LAN | ||
| Intel VT-x | Yes | ||
| Intel vPro | No | ||
| Available | March 2017 | March 2017 | February 2017 |
| Price | 490$ | $400 | $290 |
HCL and VMware ESXi Support
The NUC is not supported by VMware and not listed in the HCL. Some components were accidentally listed a few weeks ago but their listing has been removed. Not supported means that you can't open an SR with VMware when you have a problem. It does not state that the device won't work.
ESXi runs out of the box starting with the following releases:
- ESXi 6.0 Update 3 (Build 5050593) released in February 2017
- ESXi 6.5: Currently no release works out of the box because there is a problem with the network driver. Refer to the installation section for installation instructions.
To clarify, the system is not supported by VMware, so do not use this system in a productive environment. I can not guarantee that it will work stable. As a home lab or a small home server it should be fine.
Network (Intel I219-V) - "No Network Adapters" Error
The network adapter does not work out of the box with any ESXi version, released before 2017-02-24. Currently, only ESXi 6.0 U3, which is bundled with the net-e1000e driver version 2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593, works out of the box.
Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (4) I219-V
Class 0200: 8086:15d8
Storage (AHCI and NVMe)
The AHCI driver for previous NUC versions was always available, but unsupported controllers were not correctly mapped to the driver. Therefore it was required to use the additional sata-xahci package by Andreas Peetz (v-front.de). This workaround is no longer required. ESXi should detect all devices connected with AHCI or NVMe.
There is a well-known problem with NUCs running ESXi 6.5 and the native AHCI driver. If you notice bad performance (esxtop displays write latency over > 1000ms) disable vmw_ahci and reboot the box:
# esxcli system module set --enabled=false --module="vmw_ahci"
SD Card
7th Gen NUCs are equipped with a Micro SDXC Slot. Unfortunately, there is no driver available for ESXi at the moment so it's not possible to use the SD Card slot.
Tested ESXi Versions
- VMware ESXi 5.5
- VMware ESXi 6.0
- VMware ESXi 6.5
- VMware ESXi 6.7
Delivery and assembly
The Box contains a short description how to open and assemble the components. The system is a little bit heavier than it looks and has a high build quality. The upside is very scratch-sensitive, so be careful with it.
The installation is very simple. Remove 4 screws on the bottom and remove the lid and the 2.5" drive holder. The assembly takes about 5 Minutes to open the NUC, install memory, NVMe SSD module and a 2.5" drive. If you are familiar with previous NUCs, you might notice that the 2.5" holder is no longer the lid itself.
Installation
ESXi 6.0
No customization is required to install the latest ESXi 6.0 versions on 7th Gen NUCs. You can use the image provided by VMware to Install ESXi:
ESXi 6.5
[Update May 2017: I've replaced the PowerCLI Image creation because of a change in ESXi 6.5 Build 5146846]
If you try to install any version of ESXi 6.5, the installer first seems to stuck for about 2 minutes at "nfs4client failed to load" and then fails with a "No Network Adapters" error. The error is caused by a problem with the network driver. While the problem has already been identified and there was a new driver in Build 5146846 (Released 2017-03-14), the installer still fails.
It seems that the problem has been tried to fix in ESXi 6.5 ne1000 0.8.0-11vmw.650.0.14.5146846, which is the new native driver only used in ESXi 6.5. The net-e1000e driver version 2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593 which was used in ESXi 6.0U3 has not made it into the official ESXi 6.5 bundle.
To create a working ESXi 6.5 installer, just remove the ne1000 package from the official bundle and add the newer net-e1000e package:
- Get the latest version of PowerCLI
- Create a customized ESXi 6.5 ISOESXi 6.5 U1 (2017-07-27)
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-standard" -name "ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-NUC7" -Vendor "virten.net" Remove-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-NUC7" -SoftwarePackage "net-e1000e" Remove-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-NUC7" -SoftwarePackage "ne1000" Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-NUC7" -SoftwarePackage "net-e1000e 3.2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593" Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-NUC7" -ExportToISO -filepath ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-NUC7.iso Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-NUC7" -ExportToBundle -filepath ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-NUC7.zip
ESXi 6.5d (2017-04-18)
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-standard" -name "ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-NUC7" -Vendor "virten.net" Remove-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-NUC7" -SoftwarePackage "net-e1000e" Remove-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-NUC7" -SoftwarePackage "ne1000" Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-NUC7" -SoftwarePackage "net-e1000e 3.2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593" Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-NUC7" -ExportToISO -filepath ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-NUC7.iso
- Install ESXi 6.5. The simplest way to install ESXi is by using the ISO and Rufus to create a bootable ESXi Installer USB Flash Drive.
If you have already installed ESXi 6.5 (with a USB NIC for example) you can install the newer driver with the following command. You also want to remove the ne1000 package here:
# esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient # esxcli software vib install -v https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/net-e1000e/VMware_bootbank_net-e1000e_3. 2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593.vib # esxcli software vib remove -n ne1000
ESXi Update with custom driver (Workaround)
When you update your NUC with the workaround explained above, please make sure that you do not install the stock image provided by VMware. If you do so, the net-e1000e and ne1000 drivers from ESXi 6.5 will be installed and the onboard NIC will stop working. This also happens with ESXi 6.5 U1.
Please use the procedure explained above with the latest Image Profile to create a custom update bundle. The Export-EsxImageProfile Cmdlet with the -ExportToBundle option allows you to create a .zip bundle.
If you've already installed the update and vmnic0 is missing, use the following commands to remove the net-e1000 driver and replace the net-e1000e driver with the functional version. You have to use a USB NIC to copy the driver to the NUC.
# wget http://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/net-e1000e/VMware_bootbank_net-e1000e_3.2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593.vib # esxcli software vib remove -n net-e1000 # esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/VMware_bootbank_net-e1000e_3.2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593.vib -f
Download: VMware_bootbank_net-e1000e_3.2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593.vib
The force (-f) option is required because the working e1000e driver is a "downgrade".
Performance
The performance of a single NUC is sufficient to run a small home lab including a vCenter Server and 3 ESXi hosts. It's a great system to take along for demonstration purposes. Currently, I run a 3-NUC Cluster that runs about 33 virtual machines including 2 vCenters, virtual ESXi Hosts, vSAN and NSX.
The following chart is a comparison based on the NUCs PassMark score:
Power consumption
NUCs have a very low power consumption. My 7th Gen i3 NUC with an M.2 NVMe averages at about 30W. With that, the average operating costs are at about 5-6 Euros per month:
30 watt * 24 h * 30 (days) = 21,6 KWh * 0,25 (EUR) = 5,40 EUR
Consumption measured with Voltcraft Energy Monitor 3000
Power Off Issue
When you shut down the NUC from the vSphere Client or with SSH it does not switch off completely. I haven't found a solution on that yet.
[Update: The issue is resolved in ESXi 6.7]
what sort of usb key should I get? any usb3 with minimum 8GB should do for installing esxi? or better 16GB?
Take the smallest USB key you can get. ESXi requires less than 1GB.
Or could you Proxmox VE, which is free, open-source, with the hardware compatibility of Debian, and all the features of ESXi...
I'd rather the E300-8D or E200-8D from supermicro, i have 2xE300 each with 64GB RAM (can go up to 128GB), they also have 4 or 6 core Xeon as well as 10GE ports, so you can build a great little DC, with vSAN and the works!
You can't beat price and power consumption. Supermicro is 2-3 times more expensive.
That isnl true, but you also get a Xeon chip, 10GE ports (which are great for a robot VSAN), SIX ge ports which is great for redundancy and other testing. Plus the ability to run up to 128GB RAM oh and you get a proper ILO too which is great (boot over remount mount and full html5 KVM support)..
One is a proper server , one is a cheapish i7, my two supermicros have only 64GB today, and run at 85 member capacity each, i need more RAM and more CPUs (but that's always the case).
Well, exactly the 128GB makes SuperMicro few times more expensive. Go check what is the price for DDR4 ECC modules. I assume you will be surprised. Moreover those as far I can recall are not on VMware HCL.
I Looked into the Supermicro and it is indeed a better option if youve got the cash. Ive just picked up the 7th gen i7 NUC with 500GB M2 & 32GB RAM for 1100AUD. It would be at least double that with the supermicro; plus the noise makes placement restrictive.
I have ESXi running on both (i5 nuc and a variety of supermicro Xeon-D mini-itx with 32GB-128GB memory) and I can confirm that they both run great.
However, they are not directly comparable in price, performance or cooling requirements. We run 50 VMs on a single D-1541 CPU with 128GB memory, but if all cores are running under full load, you'd better have high-speed fans cooling the CPU or it'll shut down.
The nuc is fantastic for home use - you can stick it under a cupboard and forget it - I'm running ESXi 6.5 with a couple of ubuntu 16.04 servers running plex, dhcp, dns, docker etc. Runs perfectly - quiet, cool and reliable.
Great information. Great website.
I am very interesting in home lab with nuc.
However,now in thailand only one website sell core i3 7th gen model. But I preferred core i5
Should I wait... or just get core i3(7th gen) or get core i5(6th gen) which lower price.
My purpose for somewhat like 6-8 vm
linux cluster, windows AD, GNS server small lab, etc
pls advice, thx so much
Hey guys,
Is it possible to use the HDMI port of the NUC for a VM? Passthrough?
I want to install a small HTPC running on ESXi.
Best regards,
Daniel
Interesting for me is that PassMark score of 6th Gen is way higher that 7th Gen. Do you have any idea what was tested exactly ?
PassMark Score is pure CPU Power. There was no "normal" 6th Gen i7 NUC, only the "special" Skull Canyon NUC which has a very powerful HQ (High Performance Quad-Core) CPU, instead of the U (Ultra Low Power / Dual-Core) CPU all other NUCs have.
Is the wifi card soldered on? Or is it a mini pcie/m.2 2230 form factor card? Do you think it would be possible to replace the wifi card with one of the older msata/mini pcie compatible ssds?
It is soldered, you can not remove the wifi card.
question, any special config needed ? the NUC is not switching off, when saying shutdown.
same here...
Any answer to this topic
not from my side, still searching for a solution
found a solution, to be honest too easy to be true, but working, tried it on 2 NUC7i7BNH. one NUC had BIOS Version 0042, the other 0048.
Shutdown your NUC, open your NUC, remove the BIOS security jumper.
poweron your NUC, select in the Detected BIOS Security Jumper Removed Menu Option 2 for removing passowrds. power off your NUC as requested and then place the jumper in the 1-2 position which is default. power up your NUC and then it was working for me fine.
Thanks for your research, Uwe, and glad to hear you found a solution that works for you!
I tried your workaround (07/17/17) on a NUC7i7BNH with BIOS v0046, later with v0048. Sadly, I cannot confirm this to work, at least not with my hardware running ESXi 6.0U3 (build 5572656).
I can't confirm this to work. Are there any other changes you made to your NUC?
Using a NUC7i7 with ESXi 6.5
same here
http://www.virten.net/2017/03/vmware-homeserver-esxi-on-7th-gen-intel-nuc-kaby-lake/#comment-528399
Same problem here. ESXI will not power off the NUC when shutting down. I have a NUC7i3, with ESXI 6.5.0 update 1. I have installed latest BIOS BN0054.bio. Still no luck. I can confirm that the problem is related with ESXi because shutting down Ubuntu will power off the NUC normally.
I followed the instructions to utilise the Esxi 6.5 NUC 7 iso, but still encountered the "nfs41client failed to load" issue, followed by the no network adaptors issue.
I'm running with a Nuc7i3.
Any thoughts?
Same Problem here with Esxi 6.5 NUC7 and der PowerCLI Patch is not working... ;-( Same like Will
I'm also having the same problem with the NUC7i7BNH. I've also tried the PowerCLI patch and am still getting the nfs41client failed to load error.
I finally got is working. But i got a 6.0u3 Image.
Patching by myself was not successfull.
Where do you get the 6.0 patch 3 image my trial account won't let me download
You can create an installable from scratch with PowerCLI as shown in the article. Just use the profile "ESXi-6.0.0-20170604001-standard".
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.0.0-20170604001-standard" -ExportToISO -filepath ESXi-6.0.0-20170604001-standard.iso
Which NVMe SSD do you use? I tried to Install ESXi6.5 on a NUC7i7 with an Samsung 960 EVO, but i got broken VMFS (6+5) Volumes (I/O errors). This happens especially after rebooting the system. VMs failed to start and Logs could not read.
I got a lot of errors like
nvme:NvmeScsiCmd_DoSyncCache:2844:IMMED=0 is not allowed
ScsiDeviceIO: 2962: Cmd(0x439500bc2380) 0x35, CmdSN 0x611 from world 0 to dev "t10.NVMe____Samsung_SSD_960_EVO_500GB_______________C751B0615C382500" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x24 0x0.
ScsiDevice: 1625: Could not flush cache of local device t10.NVMe____Samsung_SSD_960_EVO_500GB_______________C751B0615C382500. Failure
As Adapter-Model only something like "Non-Volatile Memory" was shown.
After installing ESXi 6.0u3 everything works fine (so far). No more errors in the Logs, and as Model "NVMe SSD Controller SM961/PM961" is shown now.
But I don't know if this is an NUC7 or a Samsung 960 EVO SSD Problem...
Hey, I'm having trouble getting the ESXi 6.5 custom .iso to work. I have followed all steps to generate the iso and it completes successfully but the image still presents the same error. Is there any way you can assist with this?
I was able to install ESXi 6.5 on a NUC7i3BNH, working around the nic problem by removing the net-e1000e and ne1000 modules in fgrehl's process, based on information I found at http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2017/02/update-on-intel-nuc-7th-gen-kaby-lake-esxi-6-x.html. The steps:
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170104001-standard" -name "ESXi-6.5.0-20170104001-NUC7" -Vendor "virten.net"
Remove-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170104001-NUC7" -SoftwarePackage "net-e1000e"
Remove-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile “ESXi-6.5.0-20170104001-NUC7" -SoftwarePackage “ne1000”
Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170104001-NUC7" -SoftwarePackage "net-e1000e 3.2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593"
Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-20170104001-NUC7" -ExportToISO -filepath ESXi-6.5.0-20170104001-NUC7.iso
This worked for me on my 7i7. Thanks :)
Thank you! This was the only Complete set of working steps I found to install ESXi on my new NUC7i5BNK computers.
Hello,
How is the virtualization performance on NUC7i3?
@Jeremy and Virten , I am unable to download the offline bundle just for net-e1000e or "net-e1000e 3.2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593" , where can I get it
Use "Right Click > Save as":
https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/net-e1000e/VMware_bootbank_net-e1000e_3.2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593.vib
regarding your graph, the 6th gen is much more efficient than the 7th gen ?
The 5th Gen series had a special NUC called "Skull Canyon" which has a different chassis and a powerful CPU. It's better than the 7th Gen i7, but it is also more expensive and draws more power. Not sure if this can be referred to as "more efficient".
Is there any way to set Product Name and Vendor Name? I've installed the esxi 6.5 on NUC7i7 and I know that this is not important (as everything is working as expected) but it does not let me sleep at night ;)
[root@esx:~] esxcli hardware platform get
Platform Information
UUID: ..........
Product Name:
Vendor Name: Default string
Serial Number:
IPMI Supported: false
Yes, see
http://www.virten.net/2017/03/intel-nuc-blank-manufacturer-and-model-in-esxi-summary-tab/
Thanks for the tip.
Anyone any tips on how to get hardware temperature data available/visible?
As it is now, in the vSphere web client, under Monitor, Hardware, Sensors, I get 'No sensor data available'.
Thx.
It would be required to have drivers to get the sensors in ESXi to work. I didn't find drivers for any NUC release.
any luck on this ?
Hi,
just a little question, you told us to use a M.2 SDD and a 2.5" HD. Is it possible to only use the HD or is it mandatory to have also a SSD drive ?
Thx for answer
Both drives are optional. You just need a usb flash drive, SSD or HDD to install ESXi. If you want to use a network based storage for virtual machines, you don't need local drives.
My first plan was to elimate local drives (only usb stick for starting esxi) and have all VM on my NAS with iSCSI.
But i with only one GBIT link, i don't want to stress my Network.
Maybe in the future when i have time, i will use a secondary drive for data (iSCSI), so that all "real data" is on the NAS with backup and RAID.
But finally i also mounted a local 500GB SSD at least as SYSTEM Drive for all VM. So Network traffic will in future only when "user" data is written on the secondary iSCSI Net-Drive
Hello,
On my setup with an Nuc7i7 and esx 6.5 when i try to shutdown the system just halt and don't shutdown.
Have you seen that
Hello
I have a problem with my Intel NUC 7i7. I have installed ESXi 6.0 U3 on SSD.
Rebooting the System from Console (Yellow-Screen), Website or over SSH works fine. The NUC goes off (orange powerbutton), goes on and boots ESXi.
When i try to poweroff the NUC over Console (Yellow-Screen), Website or over SSH the network is disconnected and nothing more happens. The system won´t poweroff.
Does any one have the same problem? Any ideas to solve the problem?
Many thanks for your help.
Has anyone had success with build 5310538 (6.5.0d) and a NUC7i7bnh? I'm getting "No adapters" at installation.
5310538 has the same driver as 5146846 so the problem explained in the article still persists. (You have to create a customized iso with the 6.0 driver)
I missed read it. Went back and check my comprehension.. TY
Thank you for posting.
Great information about using VMware ESXi with the newest NUC PC.
Please when newer information is available about the drivers working natively from the VMware ISO, post an update.
Thanks again.
Thanks for your article, excellent as always.
Does anyone know if ESXi 6.0 U3 or 6.5 will install on to a NUC's SATA (AHCI) Raid 1 array.
As per the below article, it is possible to configure a Raid 1 array with a SATA SSD and SATA M.2 SSD
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000021493.html
I have tried to install ESXI 6.7 on a NUC7i7BNH with two 1TB SSD's configured in RAID 1 but the ESXI sees two disks 1TB each, not the RAID1 volume. I simply can't find any articles about this anywhere. This shoud be the place.
If anyone have a clue as what to do please let me (and possibly others) know. Thanks.
I installed 6.5 on NUC.
All it's OK.
The problem is VMWARE ESX advise me that after 60 days the VMmachine cannot become not readable cause ending of license period.
I remember ESX is FREE !!! why so ?
Thanks for your suggest/opinion
Regards Damiano.
There is a "Free ESXi" available, but you have to activate it with a license which can be obtained at no charge.
See here: http://www.virten.net/2016/11/free-esxi-6-5-how-to-download-and-get-license-keys/
By default, ESXi runs in evaluation mode for 60 days after which you can no longer power on VMs (Powered-on VMs will stay on).
error loading /state.tgz fatal error 6 (buffer too small)...
NUC7i7BNH
32 Gb ram
Samsung M2 960 PRO.
Happen when i "consolidate" permanently my ESXI system configuration (IP nework password.. DNS)
Please Help help me
Couldn’t get configuration to persist across reboots when using esxi 6.5. (custom image). Esxi 6.0 seems to work fine. Am I missing something? NUC7i3BNH with Samsung 960 EVO 500GB.
and still only one ethernet port, eehhh what about practicing failover solutions, networks isolation ?
You can use USB network adapters: http://www.virten.net/2016/06/additional-usb-nic-for-intel-nucs/
Hi,
stupid question probably.
Do you know what the tiny black 4 pin header below the ram slots is for?
Thanks & cheers!
Ilja
It's a CEC Header, part of the HDMI standard.
See:
https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/boardsandkits/NUC7i5BN_NUC7i7BN_TechProdSpec.pdf (Page 55 & Page 44 (K))
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Electronics_Control
You sir, are awesome!
Thanks a lot!
Thank you for writing articles about nucs in server purposes!
Which one of the 7th gen nucs do you recommend for a silent and energy efficient living room virtualization lab? The should be cabable of running atleast 6vm's, with various services including domain controller, web servers, mail servers, workstations, firewall, ids...
Would the i3 do? Would it be more silent and energy efficient than the others?
I would go with the i5. Both systems are equal in power consumption and noise. Only the i7 consumes noticeable more power.
The system is silent, but you can hear the fan when there are no other noises.
Hi there do you have instructions on your cluster setup.i have a 8 node setup at home connected to an L3 switch that I'd love to take to a spin.
I had always intended to do something like- this article is great to get started. The Nucs all are VTx pro enabled, and have power on/off capabilities.
Finally what's the easiest way for me to demo the software or get a hold of the bits these days?
the esx 6.5 up1 ist now working with intel nuc7 out of the box!
Thank you so much for preparing this document it was so helpful in my setup process.
Hi, thanks for the article. I'm got the NUC7i5BNH running 6.0 update 3 and it installs just fine. when I attempt to install a new windows 2012 VM , I will get a partial console and mouse control is out the window, attempting to navigate the windows 2012 installation wizard is hopeless. an clues how to fix this?
kind Regards,
Alan
I'm still on 6.0 U3 (ESX Free). But I want to upgrade to 6.5 U1 now. It is not clear to me how to do this direct on the NUC or using the provided ZIP-Bundle from the commands above.
You can either install it from the internet:
# esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient# esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-standard -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
Or use the zib bundle to update:
# esxcli software vib install -d [path-to-zip]I want to buy the NUC7i5BNH. But which hdd is supported?
I saw a seagate Firecuda 2tb ST2000LX001 or a normal Baracuda 2 tb. I saw on a intel support forum that someone didn't saw the disk till he upgraded the bios. Was asking which hdd you use with no problem to run the last ESXI version.
Thx for your reaction!!
Eu
Hi team, I have a NUC7i7BNH and I want to install ESXi 5.5, is it possible? or only in version 6 and above. I am asking you because the procedure in this publication says that it was tested in ESXi 5.5, 6.0 and 6.5 (see section "Tested ESXi Versions"). I appreciate your comments.
Yes, the 7th Gen NUC works with ESXi 5.5.
hi fgrehl, thanks for your answer.
I tried to install esxi 5.5 without success, everything works very well in esxi 6.0. Do you know the correct procedure? or, what would be the perfect Image Profile that I have to use?.
My error is basically the one that says "No network adapters were detected" blah blah, and I have to reboot. As you already know the network card is "Intel I219-V". I used the Image Profile version "ESXi-5.5.0-20170904001-standard" and it did not work for me.
In advanced thank you very much.
Thanks Florian. Would you be able to provide details on how to achieve this? It appears that replacing the NIC driver using the outlined steps fails with a dependency error.
I also receive the dependency error when trying to use ESXi 5.5
VMware_bootbank_net-e1000e_3.2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593 requires vmkapi_2_3_0_0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
If you have any workaround for this that would be awesome. Thanks.
Any Updates on the Power Off Issue?
Still no solution.
I recently bought an 7th Gen Intel NUC (Kaby Lake) - NUC7i5BNH and a StarTech USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet NIC Adapter. I installed driver as instructed above on ESXi 6.0 U3. I attached the vusb0 and the onboard vmnic0 both to my distributed virtual switch. In itself it all works fine, but every couple minutes I get this sequence of events:
USB configuration has changed.
Lost uplink redundancy on DVPorts: .... Physical NIC vusb0 is down.
Uplink redundancy restored on DVPorts: .... Physical NIC vusb0 is up.
Alarm 'Network uplink redundancy lost' on [srv]changed from Green to Red
Alarm 'Network uplink redundancy lost' on [srv]changed from Red to Green
Any suggestions?
Which driver? (William Lam or Jose Gomes?)
I'm using:
Intel NUC7I7BNH
StarTech USB 3.0 NIC (AX88179)
VMware ESXi 6.5.0 build-5969303
ax88179 1.15.1-1 driver (http://bintray.com/gomesjj/VIBs/download_file?file_path=ax88179-1.15.1-1_esxi65.vib)
No issues at all...
I use vghetto-ax88179-esxi60u2.vib. I came indeed across the fact that there are 2 drivers. I will try the other one as well. I can also try the one you use, although I run 6.0.
I will report back!
Jeroen
Check this post for a list of all USB NIC drivers: http://www.virten.net/2016/06/additional-usb-nic-for-intel-nucs/
Jose also made a driver for 6.0, see here: http://www.devtty.uk/homelab/Want-a-USB-Ethernet-driver-for-ESXi-You-can-have-two/
I tried Jose's driver, but same result: "USB configuration has changed." within minutes.
I also tried using another USB 3.0 slot (front instead of the top slot on the back).
Maybe something wrong with the USB/NIC device. I will try it in a different machine with different OS.
Thanks anyhow for your help!
I am a bit confused on how to create the environment or tool to create the esxi 6.0 u3 you mention above.
***
You can create an installable from scratch with PowerCLI as shown in the article. Just use the profile "ESXi-6.0.0-20170604001-standard".
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.0.0-20170604001-standard" -ExportToISO -filepath ESXi-6.0.0-20170604001-standard.iso
***
I may have duplicated this, having trouble with Firefox on this page, switched to chrome. Delete the earlier one if there are two please
appreciate it
thanks
To use this commands, you need the PowerCLI Module which is basically PowerShell. PowerShell is part of every Windows 10 installation. To get the PowerCLI Module, simply follow this article:
https://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/2017/04/powercli-install-process-powershell-gallery.html
When PowerCLI is installed, you can use the commands mentioned above to create ESXi Images.
Her is my experience with NUC7i3. I have four on them. Each giving me the same behaviour. 32G ram, 256G M.2 and 256G SSD. Booting from USB sticks. Running 6.5.0U1. Latest BIOS (0054). Everything is working just fine in the exception of this :
- Will not power off on shutdown.
- Will crash at boot time. Once per 4 boots approx.
Boot crash messages encounter so far :
- Could not load boot module ...
- Exception 14 in world 65790...
- Panic, we dont support base symbol values for relocation
- VMB 302 : Unexpected exception 14 ...
I also had two Esxi crashes in the last 4 mounts running my labs...
Lastly, I noticed that all-flash VSAN is very hungry in memory.
- Host running VSAN shows 14.61GB of memory used without any VM running on it.
Since NUC7 only support 32G, this mean almost 50% of my available memory is need by Esxi before I can deploy any VM on it. Icchh.
So my 4 node VSAN cluster, fully loaded with 32G per node has only 70G of ram available.
But again, this is a lab. Not for production of course. So I have many other options if I want to free some ram. Local disks, single node VSAN etc...
Update: Boot crashes only appear when the NUCs are configured for VSAN. Otherwise they dont crash at boot when configured for local storage or NFS. But still I have not figured how to fix the "no power-off on shutdown".
Thanks for this nice post
Hello everybody,
Following this site for fews months i bought 7th NUC7i5BNH with 32 Go memory and KINGSTON HYPERX M.2 480GB. Working fine for 2 months and after upgrading BIOS in the last revision, ESXI 6.5 U1 crash as he can.. pink screen, VM lost ..... well i am in hell now. It's very bad cause i found this solution very very smart. Using NUC for low power need and for small form. If anybody have an idea i will take it. Many thanks again for all this good job.
Installed Esxi 6.0u3 on a i7 gen 7 NUC. The system runs normal until it starts getting active on the network. I have an Linux VM with Observium and after a few days or even after a few hours the system is only pingable. The VM and ESX is not manageable anymore. No reaction on http/ssh. Only ping. Updating to u3a and even upgrading to the latest 6.5 did not fix this. The only thing left is a BIOS update. If the VM is not running the system runs without a problem. It seems that network traffic sends the system sliding down.
I'm unable to download any of the versions you've covered here as currently VMware is only offering 6.0U2 and 6.5.0a as the most recent free downloads for personal use. I cannot find any method that allows me to download newer versions.
Planned to run my ESXi homelab on this gen 7 NUC
NAS server needs the whole disk as native -> I need to passthrouh the AHCI to NAS server and run all other homelab VMs on the other M.2 NVMe disk.
Now it comes out that it is not possible to passthrough the Intel Corporation Sunraise Point-LP AHCI controller (8086:9d03). I have spent 3 days on this issue and read all the foums:
1) added 8086 9d03 d3d0 false into /etc/vmware/passthru.map
2) have played with ESXi drivers, disabled, enabled ahci and vmw_ahci
3) have tried it on ESXI 6.0U3 and ESXI6.5U1
4) have tried with AHCI disk connected and without disk (running ESXI on USB)
Reading several forums, it looks me that the passthrough is very demanded feature specially for NAS solutions.
My conclusion after 3 days is that I have to find another hardware for my ESXi homelab which supports AHCI passthrough. Any suggstions for very low power consumption device, which is similar to NUC and supports ESXI passthrough?
Hi Raimo,
I have the same issue with you about SATA AHCI cannot be passthrough. Have you resolved it now?
Installed esxi 6.5 on NUC7i5BNH on usb. All went well. But i don't see my nvme samsung evo 960 256GB. It is also not showing up in BIOS. Tried latest bios 60 and 2 downwards. no luck. Something wrong with the nvme?
Not sure why, but after installing also a SATA SSD, the NVMe got visible!
I was able to add it as a datastore in ESXi and afther that i removed the SATA SSD and the NVMe kept working.
Very strange...
Marco, we have similar configuration, please see my comment just before your one. Can you please check if you are able to passthrough the "Intel Corporation Sunraise Point-LP AHCI controller" to a VM. Please also add the "8086 9d03 d3d0 false" into /etc/vmware/passthru.map before testing. Thanks in advance, Raimo.
Hi Raimo, i just tried. In ESXi i got passthrough Active after adding in passthru.map and reboot.
Checked Win10 VM, but don't see controller in device manager if i'm not mistaking.
Very strange, as I see always passthrough not supported for the same controller in ESXi. What is you exact ESXi version? I will try with the same version.
Hi Raimo, I use this version ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001
Hi Raimo, forget the last reply. I forgot i updated the ESXi. This is the version i'm using: ESXi-6.5.0-20171204001-standard
Marco, I have exactly the same NUC. I installed exactly your (latest) ESXi version on 16GB USB, updated the passthru.map, rebooted and I stil see the "Sunrise Point-LP AHCI Controller" as not capable for passthrough ???
Any Idea what could be different in our configurations?
Hi Raimo, do you also use BIOS 060? Default settings loaded in BIOS? Only change I made in BIOS, is disable HDMI CEC. The rest is default. USB with ESXi is connected at the upper port in the back.
I have now:
- NUC7i5BNH
- ESXi-6.5.0-20171204001-standard on 16GB USB
- BIOS BNKBL357.86A.0060.2017.1214.2013
- 8086 9d03 d3d0 false added into /etc/vmware/passthru.map
Exactly the same versions and same configuration than Marco.
In web client under Host->Manage->Hardware->PCI Devices I see that:
Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP AHCI Controller
IS NOT PASSTHRUGH CAPABLE ????
Weird thing is that Marco boots from upper back USB port and in my case this port just does not boot.
Boot device is not recognised by BIOS in this upper port. I am able to boot ESXi from all other USB ports, but from this one in backside. Is it HW failure???
Also BIOS settings are default except HDMI CEC disabled, like Marco instructed
I borrowed another NUC exactly the same type and configuration. Now I was able to boot ESXi from upper back USB port -> it must have been a HW issue previously.
But I am still not able to get the passthrough of the AHCI controller working.
Marco - did you see the AHCI controller being passthrough capable in web client under Host->Manage->Hardware->PCI Devices ?
I see there 5 passthrough capable devices and not the AHCI controller:
- Intel VGA compatible controller
- Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/v6 / E3-1500 v5 / 6th/7th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
- Intel Corporation Wireless 8265 / 8275
- Realtek Semiconductor RTS5229 PCI Express Card Reader
- IntelCorporation Ethernet Connection (4) I219-V
I have built exact replica of your system. Can you please cross-check if you see it beside the 5 devices listed above. I just need it so badly :)
Hi Raimo,
Check this link: https://imgur.com/a/Jk1Nx
Thank you Marco. Wanna get your NUC so badly :)
The only difference now is that you have your Samsung Evo 960 256GB NVMe also connected. I have SATA SSD and I have also tried without it. Can't believe that this can make a difference. If its not already too much to ask, maybe you can remove the NVMe and check again.
I'm sorry, but to remove the nvme is unfortunately to much hassle now for me ;)
But one think you check is the hardware version you have.
Mine has SA#: J31169-307. That could be the issue i guess!?
Marco, I understand and appreciate the great help you have provided so far.
HW number is exactly the same.
ESXi and BIOS versions are same, BIOS settings are same, passthru.map is updated, both are booting ESXi from the same USB port.
Will buy the NVMe chip...
Raimo, did you get it working with NVMe?
I'm stuck with same issue - can't get passthrough working (I'm on latest ESXi 6.7), passthrough.map updated, VT enabled in BIOS. just don't have NVMe, but booting from USB - lower back port.
I just bought one for the home lab but the 32Gb memory limitation is a big issue if you plan to set up a complex lab to go for the VCAP for instance. You cap the memory simply with the primary host (where you'll place 3 nested hosts for the cluster), the vCenter (VCSA 6.5 require a minimum of 10Gb RAM if you go tiny) and the FreeNAS. Probably I'll have to purchase another one to play a little bit better but then network limitation (single card) will come into play...
I've tried creating a custom ISO for 5.5 using the details above, but when it comes to adding the driver, I get the following:
Add-EsxSoftwarePackage : VIB VMware_bootbank_net-e1000e_3.2.2.1-2vmw.600.3.57.5050593 requires vmkapi_2_3_0_0, but therequirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile. However, additional VIB(s)
VMware_bootbank_esx-base_6.0.0-3.57.5050593, VMware_bootbank_esx-base_6.0.0-2.54.5047589 from depot can satisfy this
requirement.
Do you have any suggestions on how I might be able to resolve this?
the new patch will work for intel i7 nuc
vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.5 U1 | 2017-07-27 Notes] | [Download]
Latest Patch: ESXi 6.5 U1e* | Build: 7526125 | 2018-01-09
Hi,
Why ppl boot esxi6.5 from usb , and not directly from the m2 NVME device?
I cant use a single Samsung 950 NVME pro for booting the esxi and the datastore for the vm´s?
This is not more fast?
If you want to play on a single host yes, but if you want to play with vSAN and 3 different NUCs you-ll use the USB stick to boot the OS, the M.2 drive as Flash drive for vSAN and the sata drive as storage, for instance
After that, was there any progress of problems that can not be shut down?
Actually, with latest ESXi build, I shut down it properly without problem. Intel NUC 7i7bnh and ESXi 6.5
Sorry Daniele, unfortunately I cannot confirm this.
I´m on build 7967591, which is installed on an usb device. Installed BIOS Version is BNKBL357.86A.
Can you give us more information’s about your setup?
We have a number of 7th gen NUCs (small form factor), all running ESXi 6.5U1. Some power off properly from the vSphere web client, some do not. We have narrowed it down to the BIOS version of the NUC. The 036 version appears to power off properly, while all newer versions, including the latest 062, do not. We have even tried to downgrade some of them to 036, but they fail to do so (even 042 will not downgrade, even the Intel documentation indicates that this should be possible).
Sorry Daniele, unfortunately I cannot confirm this.
I´m on build 7967591, which is installed on an usb device. Installed BIOS Version is BNKBL357.86A.
Can you give us more information’s about your setup?
Thanks for your fantastic piece of work.
However, I got my intel NUC now working with your help:
installed config profile > ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-NUC7 (virten.net)
If I upgrade to ESXi-6.5.0-20180304001-standard do you know wether the LAN will work or how to I have to upgrade that it remains working?
Tested NUC7i7 with ESXi 6.7. All is working fine. Network is working and shutdown is also working fine.
Shutdown is working fine for me too, after the upgrade to ESXi 6.7 GA. Bios is on version 62.
Did you do any customizations to the ESXi iso? Or just installed the standard version ESXi 3.7 from VMware and all (incl. NIC) was working?
did 6.7 work out of the box on the NUC? I have a NUC5 which seems to install 6.7 then doesnt work on the network - i suspect the NIC...I think I'll go back to 6.5
the onboard nic works for me with 6.7 but my USB nics didnt work. I'm currently in contact with jose who wrote drivers for the realtek und asix chips and hopefully we (more he) can find the reason for the issue I currently have.
So, it appears that the Spectre patches affect performance for NVME storage about 30%.
While patching is extremely important, if you are using NUCs as a ESXi host, you may want to not flash the firmware due to the massive NVME performance hits you’re going to take. (Its about 80-100MB/sec.)
Keep in mind that this will be the case for every system currently out there, not just the NUCs.
Some mitigation can be had by adjusting the size of the blocks for your storage. =>64k may make a hugh difference.... do your research.
Any news on if the NUC7I7DNHE (Business version with quad core i7-8650U CPU) will work with ESXi? Seems a good lab machine potential vs older Skull Canyon one?
Hi, I am looking for DNHE infos as well, I have already bought the device and its sitting on my desks having (maybe) a storage problem.
also see: https://communities.vmware.com/thread/587959
but forum seems to be down right now....
My DNHE showed a black screen for about 1 minute while loading the installer. Then everything went fine, but I'm using it without SSD/HDD.
Did you try to narrow down the problem by removing the HDD or SSD?
Try it without SSD and without HDD and see if the installer loads.
Sometimes the ESXi Image is broken. Redownload it and use another flash drive to rule that out.
Not sure if you can get more output. When it shows an error, there is more information (It loads the vmkernel in the background, so there is a vmkernel.log too) but when the installer is stuck there is no message.
See https://www.virten.net/2018/05/esxi-on-7th-gen-intel-nuc-kaby-lake-dawson-canyon/
yes, just seen that :)
found my problem as well: mixed up uefi / legacy settings in BIOS; unchecked legacy, checked UEFI - now it is working like a charm!
Does anyone know if esxi 6.5 U2 will work out of the box, with no need to modify the install package to add a special nic driver?
I have this setup. After installing to a 64 USB stick the system boots but there are a couple issues.
1. There is no local datastore. This is going syslog errors. When I look at the storage devices I sill the entire 56gb USB stick that I installed the OS on but it won't let me create a datastore or use it.
2. I've configured VSAN with the NVMe and SSD drive and that seemed to work well. However, my hosts (have three) all are using 15.22GB of RAM. Since these systems max out at 32GB that's making their use very limited.
Any help I can get I'd love.
Thanks.
I tried this and I'm not getting any IP (however, on Windows 10 it was working perfectly fine)
If I set it as static, same problem and I won't ping any host on the network neither gateway.
Any idea ?
Can anybody please confirm if NUC7i5BNH works with ESXi 5.5 ?
The article states it was tested on ESXi 5.5 but I see no further information.
Thank you in advance.
Did anybody experience a high cpu usage from the host and process PID1 after 49 days of uptime??? Something called OCFlush is responsible, but I don't know how to fix it.
Same problem here.. No fix found yet.
Hello Guys,
Slow iSCSI speeds on an Intel NUC?
If you have problem with iSCSI when trying to use JUMBO frames. My Synology would only give me like 5-7MB/sec with the following latency errors from dmesg:
NFS: 221: Got error 13 from mount cal
and
Long VMFS3 rsv time on
Also, I could see 200-400ms latency on the datastore (indicating high network latency), but pinging with size 9000 to the Synology NAS would give <1ms.
My NUC has the following NIC:
ESX 6.5
NIC: lspci | grep -i intel| grep -i network
0000:00:1f.6 Network controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (4) I219-V [vmnic0]
driver:
[root@NUC-ESX:~] esxcli network nic list
Name PCI Device Driver Admin Status Link Status Speed Duplex MA
------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ----------- ----- ------ --
vmnic0 0000:00:1f.6 ne1000 Up Up 1000 Full f4
The problem was, that my intel NIC could not handle MTU=9000 bytes. It massivly drops packes when using iSCSI.
When I set the MTU back to 1500, I got 99MB/sec and <5ms latency on the ISCSI DataStore.
I settled at MTU=8000 to not get high-CPU usage on the Synology from encapdecapuslating packets.
Know to first lower vSwitch MTU and after that NIC MTU.
You can also use the following commands.
esxcli network vswitch standard
esxcli network ip interface
This fixed slow iSCSI speeds for me.
Hope this helps.
also take a look at: (this could also be it)
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1002598
KR Bas
Anyboy familiar with the following problem?
Running ESXi 7.0 for quite a long period on NUC7i5BNH with Samsung 960 250GB SSD and suddenly the SSD stops working with Error, Timeout. Also after reboot.
I can still install Ubuntu on this SSD, but in ESXi it's not working!?
Is the SSD broken or is ESXi behaving weirdly?