Network Cards Used For My VMware ESX Home Lab

VMware

I often get asked to to recommend a network card for use in a work or home VMware ESX(i) home lab.  As well as the onboard NICs of my HP Proliant ML110/ML115’s,  that I generally use for the service console traffic, I use either a PCIe based dual port Intel Pro 1000 PT or HP NC380T.  Both are on the VMware ESX I/O compatibility list.

I have used both in anger for sometime now and have found them both to offer solid performance event under heavy load.  I bought my cards off of EBay which I found to regularly have both cards available for sale.

Can’t beat a picture of kit (brings out the anorak in me :) ) so here they are (even took the photos myself)…

Intel Pro 1000 PT

Intel-Pro-1000-PT

HP NC380T

HP-NC380T

 

No related posts.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Network Cards Used For My VMware ESX Home Lab”

  1. [...] Simon Seagrave’s home lab (TechHead.Co.Uk) [...]

  2. [...] to add a PCI or PCIe based network adapter which has the jumbo frames functionality.  I use these two VMware ESX/ESXi approved network cards mentioned in my earlier post here, both of which support jumbo frames and can be picked up for a [...]

  3. Kashif says:

    How many network adapters do I need, I have one on board and dual intel card.

    I know I need a port for management, and one for storage, is a 3rd required for vmotion? what about LAN

  4. Kiwi Si says:

    Hi Kashif,

    If it is for a small lab environment you probably only need one NIC and just use VLANs to separate:

    - Managment
    - Storage (iSCSI/NFS)
    - vMotion
    - Fault Tolerance (assuming you want to use FT)

    Just remember to enable VLANs at all points between the ESX/ESXi host and the storage device/appliance including your switch.

    Hope this helps.

    Simon

  5. msuk says:

    Hello,

    I bought one of these cards and it does not fit my ML115 G5. The back plate is too short.

  6. msuk says:

    Hi,

    Sorry I forget to mention it is a Intel Pro 1000 PT card

Leave a Reply

Powered by Sweet Captcha
Verify your real existence,
Put the ice cubs in the cocktail
  • captcha
  • captcha
  • captcha
  • captcha

TrainSignal - vSphere Pro
VMware vSphere Recommended Reads
Veeam #1
AppAssure
StarWind Software
TechHead Needs You - Top 25 Blog Sites
Trilead