Confirmed - VMWare ESXi 4.0 works on a HP ProLiant DL160 G5

Sometimes it is frustrating to find out if your non HCL hardware will work with ESXi before shelling out $ on hardware, but in my case, I don't have to commit this hardware just for VM service, so it was more of a test if anything, and if it works, it may even go into light production duty (probably would advise to go for something on the official HCL for mission critical duty).

For more whitebox and official hardware compatibility info with ESXi, check out:

• http://www.vm-help.com/
• http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

The following configuration options worked for me:

• DL160 firmware up to current version as of Oct 2009
• SATA RAID disabled
• Installed onto internal SATA hard drive
• I had to re-order the boot priority of the SATA hard drives (I have 2 installed) for ESXi 4.0 to boot after the installation (via CD - onto one of the hard drives)
• Both NICs are seen by ESXi 4.0 as well

I also confirmed that this 1U server also worked fine with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. But what I didn't count on, is how locked down and inconvenient it is for lab testing compared to VMWare's bare metal product. Hyper-V does look great at first glance with the free vmotion stuff, but it just takes too long to setup in a non domain lab setup (and can only be managed from a Win2k8, Vista or Windows 7 console!). For now, going to stick with VMWare products. :)