In the next few weeks I'll be looking into installing the evaluation version of ESX VI 3.5 and possible 3.0.2 on a pair of whiteboxes I have waiting in my home lab. From reading posts on the forum, it looks like I won't have any incompatibility problems with a large part of the hardware presently installed (listed below) in each box except for the on board NICS which are based on the Marvell-Yukon processor. This is where my question arises.
I understand the Intel Dual port NICS PRO/1000 MT based on the Intel 82546EB processor should play nice with ESX 3.0.2 or 3.5 but if I'm wanting to take full advantage of the software: HA; VMotion, DRS just how many NICS will I be needing to install? I've found a decent online supplier for these cards, and was initially thinking of purchasing two boards per server (4 gigabit ports per server) but I start to wonder whether this would be overkill.
BOX 1
Asus P5B-Deluxe
Intel Core2Duo E6300 @ 1.86Ghz
4 Gb DDR2
Adaptec 2610SA SATA RAID controller
2 x 320 Gb SATA II Drives
BOX2
Asus P5B-Deluxe
Intel Core2Duo E6300 @ 1.86Ghz
4 Gb DDR2
Adaptec 2610SA SATA RAID controller
2 x 320 Gb SATA II Drives
Thanks in advance.
Paul