ESXi Question

[Mlindsey]

Hello Everyone,

I am very new to ESXi and have a couple questions if you dont mind. I am downloading the .ISO now and will hopefully have it up tomorrow to try.

First Question. How many Virtual Machine can I run at one time? I am looking to get 16 XP PRO 64bit PC's running at one time. Is there a max? I dont think I will have a hardware issue as its a new server (2x QUAD CPU, 32GB RAM, 4gig NIC's, SCSI 250gb drives/etc)

Second Question. I dont need an OS to host the actual program? Meaning I can just pop the CD in and build the server as I would a Windows Server OS? Is there a different installer for 32bit or 64bit? Or does that not matter?

I think that is all I have for now... Thanks again!

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

First Question. How many Virtual Machine can I run at one time? I am looking to get 16 XP PRO 64bit PC's running at one time. Is there a max? I dont think I will have a hardware issue as its a new server (2x QUAD CPU, 32GB RAM, 4gig NIC's, SCSI 250gb drives/etc)

You shouldn't have any problems getting 16 XP VM's on your hardware, just ensure you have VT enabled in the BIOS of your Host ESXi Server so you can run the x64 guests.

Here is a link to the maximums if you are interested

Second Question. I dont need an OS to host the actual program? Meaning I can just pop the CD in and build the server as I would a Windows Server OS? Is there a different installer for 32bit or 64bit? Or does that not matter?

ESXi is bare metal OS, it installs onto your hardware. For you guests you still need OS media.

[Mlindsey]

Thanks for the quick response. One more question.

I know in VS allowed me to use my 4 nic and split them up between my VM's... This works the same way in ESXi I assume? I can put 4 VM's on each of my 4 NIC's if I wanted too?

Again... Thanks for the quick response!!! :smileymischief:

[Troy_Clavell]

in ESX(i) you attach your VM's to a vSwitch, that vSwitch is mapped to the pNICs.