This repo is dedicated to ESXi-on-Arm related homelab tinkering. ESXi on Arm is a VMware project name for a hypervisor system. It runs ESXi on arm64 processors eg. on Raspberry Pi hardware. See https://flings.vmware.com/esxi-arm-edition.
Actually this content is solely related to Raspberry Pi 4B hardware.
Bill of material
- 1x RPi 4B, micro hdmi attached monitor, keyboard, network attached
- 1x 32GB microSD for the RPI4 uefi firmware
- 1x 32GB usb stick for the arm64 ESXi install bits
- 1x 128GB usb stick for the arm64 ESXi installation
- 1x 1TB usb stick with an existing vmfs6 datastore
On your client (eg. laptop) plug-in the microSD.
Download RPi4_UEFI_Firmware_{release}.zip from https://github.com/pftf/RPi4/releases
Download RPi Imager from https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/
Start RPi Imager > own image > select RPi4_UEFI_Firmware_{release}.zip, write on 32GB microSD.
In your RPi4, plugin now the microSD.
Download the esxi-on-arm ISO from https://flings.vmware.com/esxi-arm-edition.
Download a tool to write the ISO file to the usb stick eg. rufus.
Start Rufus > select VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0-19076756.aarch64.iso, and write the bits on the 32GB usb stick.
Plugin the 32GB usb stick on an USB2 port. Plugin the 128GB usb stick on an USB3 port. Power on.
Configure BIOS:
- Disable 3GB limitation.
- Configure fan.
- Remove boot options boot from any network. Configure to boot from USB stick.
Now boot from the usb media.
You should now have two plugged-in two usb-sticks, a micro HDMI cable, a keyboard and a network cable.
Install ESXi on the plugged-in 128gb usb stick.
ESXi automatically runs with DHCP if available or with APIPA. You can configure a static ip address as well. The ip is presented on the screen eg. http://192.168.0.100.
On your web browser, go to the ip address and login. Navigate to Host > Manage > Tab: Services > start TSM-SSH.
In my scenario, the 1TB usb stick contains an existing vmfs6 datastore. It isn't automatically recognized during boot. Additionally, sometimes ntp daemon has to be started manually. Hence, we add following content to /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh .
/etc/init.d/ntpd restart
ntpq -p
/etc/init.d/usbarbitrator stop
partedUtil getptbl /dev/disks <your vml.id>
The <vml.id> must contain the id which can be found by analyzing the output from ls /dev/disks.
There is no built-in driver for monitoring the hardware status of the Raspberry Pi. Having done some research, it seems that there are some open source initiatives, but none has reached a stable and 'install friendly' level. A promising one is https://github.com/thebel1/thpimon. Download the .vib from URL and copy it to your datastore eg. /vmfs/volumes/sandisk.
[root@localhost:~] esxcli software acceptance set --level=CommunitySupported
Host acceptance level changed to 'CommunitySupported'.
[root@localhost:~] esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/sandisk/thgpio-0.1.0-1OEM.701.1.0.40650718.aarch64.vib
Installation Result
Message: Operation finished successfully.
Reboot Required: false
VIBs Installed: THX_bootbank_thgpio_0.1.0-1OEM.701.1.0.40650718
VIBs Removed:
VIBs Skipped:
[root@localhost:~]
To pass the GPIO signal(s) to a virtual machine, there is a community supported solution. Download from URL https://github.com/thebel1/thgpio and copy the .vib to your datastore eg. /vmfs/volumes/sandisk.
[root@localhost:~] esxcli software acceptance set --level=CommunitySupported
Host acceptance level changed to 'CommunitySupported'.
[root@localhost:~] esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/sandisk/thgpio-0.1.0-1OEM.701.1.0.40650718.aarch64.vib
Installation Result
Message: Operation finished successfully.
Reboot Required: false
VIBs Installed: THX_bootbank_thgpio_0.1.0-1OEM.701.1.0.40650718
VIBs Removed:
VIBs Skipped:
[root@localhost:~]
Go to the following chapters.
- arm64 Microsoft Windows 11
- arm64 VMware Photon OS 4 rev2 (todo)