Ryzen working with ESXi 6.5 - kinda...

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rtangwai

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The ServerTheHome guys got ESXi 6.5 to install on a Ryzen CPU without a Pink Screen of Death:

https://www.servethehome.com/amd-ryzen-working-with-vmware-esxi-6-5/

Unfortunately they had to disable SMT to get it to work, which according to STH translates to a 30%+ performance loss. STH themselves don't consider this to be truly "working" as they believe that big a sacrifice is unacceptable.

I really hope VMware gets ESXi patched up, but knowing them they won't address the issue until Naples is released.
 
rtangwai said:
The ServerTheHome guys got ESXi 6.5 to install on a Ryzen CPU without a Pink Screen of Death:

https://www.servethehome.com/amd-ryzen-working-with-vmware-esxi-6-5/

Unfortunately they had to disable SMT to get it to work, which according to STH translates to a 30%+ performance loss. STH themselves don't consider this to be truly "working" as they believe that big a sacrifice is unacceptable.

I really hope VMware gets ESXi patched up, but knowing them they won't address the issue until Naples is released.
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That's kind of lame. I mean, I'm glad they got something up and running, but still, VMware is kind of fail with new hardware releases.

As a side note: VirtualBox works for me. So if anyone is having trouble with VMware on Ryzen at the moment, try VirtualBox instead.
 
This is disappointing for me. I've been looking at building a new 8-core whitebox, and Ryzen with a cheap AM4 board was going to be way cheaper than the dual Xeon stuff I've been looking at. :(

Does anyone know how dedicated VMWare is to supporting AMD? It seems their hardware support in general progresses at a slow pace.

DuronBurgerMan said:
As a side note: VirtualBox works for me. So if anyone is having trouble with VMware on Ryzen at the moment, try VirtualBox instead.
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VirtualBox is a type-2 hypervisor, so that's not an acceptable solution for people looking to run ESXi.
 
InorganicMatter said:
This is disappointing for me. I've been looking at building a new 8-core whitebox, and Ryzen with a cheap AM4 board was going to be way cheaper than the dual Xeon stuff I've been looking at. :(

Does anyone know how dedicated VMWare is to supporting AMD? It seems their hardware support in general progresses at a slow pace.
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I'd bet when Naples is released, we'll see movement on this. Ryzen 7 isn't really positioned as a server CPU (even if it is derived from one), and so VMware is probably largely ignoring its release, and waiting for Naples before releasing anything.

VirtualBox is a type-2 hypervisor, so that's not an acceptable solution for people looking to run ESXi.
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Not suggesting it is. I'm saying if anyone has any problems with desktop VMware offerings (like Workstation), then VirtualBox can serve as a substitute, as it runs perfectly fine on my Ryzen system.
 
I'm starting to wonder how well Ryzen handle Hyper-V - it has some limitations compared to ESXi especially with passthough but being Windows-based I bet it has better support.
 
People are upset that VMWare is not supporting non-server grade hardware....

Did i miss something?
 
Some people like me use whitebox ESXi servers as we don't need/can't afford server-grade hardware and options like IPMI.

The cheap Bulldozer/Excavator AMD CPUs supported IOMMU making them good candidates for whiteboxes (lots of threads but the slow IPC was a definite drawback).

When/if VMware makes ESXi Ryzen-compatible it will be to me like Excavator on steroids and meth :)

That entry-level Threadripper 12c/24t is looking interesting - my biggest concern about switching to Ryzen was that the 1700 was only dual-channel RAM. Few applications actually need/exploit the extra memory bandwidth of quad-channel, but Type-1 hypervisors happen to fall in that category. Since Threadripper is quad-channel and probably supports ECC it is looking like a better candidate at $500 for the entry-level version even with the (likely) more expensive motherboard. RAM prices remain the same for me as I planned on ECC all along.
 
MrGuvernment said:
People are upset that VMWare is not supporting non-server grade hardware....

Did i miss something?
Click to expand...

ESXi is not limited to server-grade only hardware. It's distributed by VMWare for free, and they provide a robust HCL so you can roll your own whitebox.
 
InorganicMatter said:
ESXi is not limited to server-grade only hardware. It's distributed by VMWare for free, and they provide a robust HCL so you can roll your own whitebox.
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Fully aware of that, but it does not mean it should be put on desktop gear, nor should people get upset that a business grade application does not work on the latest and greatest home user processors...

Just because some people can does not mean everyone should be able to. You want to run it, buy gear you know it works on.
 
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