VMWare doesn’t support USB3 ethernet adapters out of the box (without significant “hacking”) but Apples Thunderbolt version works happily with ESXI 6.Īdditional Ethernet – Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter While not strictly essential, a second ethernet port is handy for my ESXI test setup. USB Drive – Kingston Technology 16 GB Micro USB Additional Ethernet I picked an aluminium model to match the chassis. Min requirements for ESXI 6 is 4GB but most decent quality pen drives start at 16GB which is more than enough.

I need something to boot ESXI from, so a nice cheap USB3.0 pendrive will suffice. HDD – Western Digital 1TB Blue Laptop HDDĭata Doubler installation instructions (via OWC).Additional Parts – OWC Data Doubler + Tools.This drive is a bit of a sweet spot between size and price, so this is my default choice for ISO’s, general storage and low intensity VM’s. I have a 250GB and 500GB SSD’s in various laptops so if needed i’ll swap this out. In an ideal world i’d have gone for a higher capacity drive but i’ll see how I go with this one. I’m using the 120GB SSD because I’ve already got it to hand. OWC has a great step-by-step install guide on the process. The additional tools and cables required can be bought as an aftermarket part from a company called OWC. The standard MacMini 2012 shares the same chassis as the server version but lacks the additional wiring needed to support a second internal hard drive. Memory – Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3 Kit.I’ve used Crucial memory for over 10 years now in all my laptops and desktops as its good value and reliable, so I see no reason to change suppliers. The 2012 MacMini can only support a maximum of 16GB RAM, which while not ideal, will be enough for my purposes for the near future. Its a good start but I need a few upgrades – here’s my shopping list. I’m now in the process of upgrading the internal hardware for its new role as dedicated ESXI host for the homelab. The Macs been running off and on for the last few weeks in various guises ( ESXI host, Server 2012 R2 box and as a Kodi player) so i’m more than happy that its stable. As the chassis was a bare bones unit, I threw in some parts that I had to hand in order to get it up and running for a quick test. As mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve recently been able to breath some life into an old dead late 2012 MacMini that i picked up for a bargain price off of eBay.

Install esxi on mac mini