A new year means a new Intel NUC with the latest generation of processors from Intel.
Today, Intel has launched the new Intel NUC 13 Pro, previously codenamed Arena Canyon NUC, which incorporates the latest Intel 13th Generation Raptor Lake CPU mobile processors and delivering that in the classic 4x4 Intel NUC form factor that many in the VMware community are quite familiar with.
At first glance, the Intel NUC 13 Pro looks exactly the same as the previous Intel NUC 12 Pro generation. In fact, the only visible difference on the outside between the 12th and 13th Generation Intel NUC Pro is that the Intel NUC 13 now has a new etched Intel NUC logo that is located on the top of the case on the lower left as shown in the screenshot above. Obviously, the changes with the Intel NUC 13 Pro is from within, so lets now take a closer look at the newest Intel NUC Pro and what it has to offer from a VMware Homelab perspective.
Compute
There are five different CPU configurations to select from across Intel Core i7, i5 and i3 processors, two of which include support for Intel vPro.
- Intel 13th Generation Intel® Core i7-1370P (vPro)
- 14 Processor Cores (6P+8E), 20 threads, 24MB Intel® Smart Cache, 35W TDP
- P-Cores: 5.2GHz Turbo; E-Cores : 3.9GHz Turbo
- Intel 13th Generation Intel® Core i7-1360P
- 14 Processor Cores (6P+8E), 16 threads, 18MB Intel® Smart Cache, 35W TDP
- P-Cores: 5.0GHz Turbo; E-Cores: 3.7GHz Turbo
- Intel 13th Generation Intel® Core i5-1350P (vPro)
- 12 Processor Cores (4P+8E), 16 threads, 12MB Intel® Smart Cache, 35W TDP
- P-Cores: 4.7GHz Turbo; E-Cores: 3.5GHz Turbo
- Intel 13th Generation Intel® Core i5-1340P
- 12 Processor Cores (4P+8E), 16 threads, 12MB Intel® Smart Cache, 35W TDP
- P-Cores: 4.6GHz Turbo; E-Cores: 3.4GHz Turbo
- Intel 13th Generation Intel® Core i3-1315U
- 6 Processor Cores (2P+4E), 8 threads, 10MB Intel® Smart Cache, 20W TDP
- P-Cores: 4.5GHz Turbo; E-Cores: 3.3GHz Turbo
Note: From an availability standpoint, Intel NUCs are typically available for 3yrs but for certain SKUs, they will now be available for up to 5yrs, which is great for organization that need to plan out longer and still be able to purchase. For more information, you can refer to the Intel NUC 13 Pro product brief document.
Similar to the Intel NUC 12 Pro and NUC 11 Pro, the Intel NUC 13 Pro also includes a "Slim" K or "Tall" H chassis option and the latter providing a secondary onboard network interface and two additional USB ports. All kits support up to 64GB SO-DIMM (DDR4-3200) similiar to previous Intel NUC generations.
Network
The built-in onboard network interface has been upgraded to an Intel i226 (2.5GbE) where as the previous Intel NUC 12 Pro included Intel i225 (2.5GbE), both of which is automatically recognized when using ESXi 8.0 or using the Community Networking Driver for ESXi Fling for those that wish to run earlier ESXi 7.0 versions.
For those interested in the Tall chassis option, you also have the ability to add a secondary Intel i226 (2.5GbE) expansion module that includes two additional USB ports. Again, ESXi 8.0 will automatically recognize the network adapter or you will need the Community Networking Driver for ESXi Fling if you plan to run ESXi 7.0. A couple of purchasing options for the expansion module is either from SimplyNUC or Gorite.
If you need to add even more networking, you can take advantage of the two Thunderbolt 4 ports using these Thunderbolt 10GbE solutions for ESXi or look at USB-based networking by using the popular USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling.
Storage
Storage support is also exactly the same as the previous Intel NUC 12 Pro, 1 x M.2 PCIe x4 Gen 4 (2280) and 1 x M.2 SATA (2242) for the Slim chassis option. For those interested in vSAN, I recommend looking at the vendor KingShark, which has a compatible M.2 SATA (2242) which I have shared in a previous blog post using their 256GB SATA SSD. Historically, the Slim chassis only supports a single M.2 NVMe and now with an extra 2242 slot, you can run vSAN while still getting the benefit of the Slim chassis option.
For those interested in the Tall chassis option, you also have the ability to add an additional 2.5" SATA SSD on the back of the chassis lid, which will future proof your investment since you will now have up to three storage devices, one of which can be used to install the ESXi OSDATA. Although ESXi can be installed from USB, this option has been deprecated and will be removed post-ESXi 8.0, so something to really consider. See this blog post for additional considerations for vSphere 8.
If you need even more storage or performant external storage options, you can also use the two Thunderbolt 4 ports and add these Thunderbolt M.2 NVMe solutions for ESXi which will give you plenty more storage capacity.
Graphics
Happy to share that the onboard iGPU can be successfully passthrough to an Ubuntu VM, which has support for the latest Intel Graphics Drivers. For more information and instructions on setup, please refer to this blog post HERE.
ESXi
The latest release of ESXi 8.0b installs on the Intel NUC 13 Pro without any issues, no additional drivers are required as the Community Networking Driver for ESXi has been productized as part of the ESXi 8.0 release. If you want to install ESXi 7.x, you will need to use of the Community Networking Driver for ESXi Fling to recognize the onboard network devices.
It is recommended to disable the E-cores within the Intel NUC BIOs following the instructions HERE to prevent ESXi from PSOD'ing due to non-uniform CPU cores, which will result in following error "Fatal CPU mismatch on feature". If for some reason you prefer not to disable either the P-cores or E-Cores, then you can add the following ESXi kernel option cpuUniformityHardCheckPanic=FALSE to workaround the issue which needs to be appended to the existing kernel line by pressing SHIFT+O during the boot up. Please see this video HERE for the detailed instructions for applying the workaround.
Note: If you decide NOT to disable either E-Cores or P-Cores, you may also run into an additional PSOD when powering on a VM with GP exception in world message. To workaround this problem, please see this blog post HERE.
Since vSphere 8.0 Update 1 was recently announced a couple of weeks ago, I also wanted to take the opportunity and verify that it will also work with the latest Intel NUC 13 Pro, which it does as you can see from the ESXi DCUI screenshot below.
Note: vSphere 8.0 Update 1 has not been released, please see the announcement blog post for more information.
Might need to check the Compute specs table, some of those numbers don't look right and don't add up.
Thanks for the catch Daniel. I've just corrected based on the product brief
Only major issue with ESXi and NUC are no CIM Providers/Drivers for hardware monitoring in ESXi. I have roughly 14 Intel NUCs I use in my home lab and didn't find out about several hardware failures until they dropped off the network. If there is a workaround, I'm all ears! Started moving to Lenovo M Tiny machines instead, they support VMWare really well: vmware.lenovo.com/content/
Hey, what model of Lenovo M Tiny are you using?
Thanks
How is the power consumption without the E-cores?
Thanks for your post.
A few questions:
Can you try passing the GPU to Windows?
What about enabling the e-cores after installation? Is esxi able to handle e- und p-cores?
1. The Intel Drivers for Windows have issues and Intel hasn't expressed interests in resolving. See https://williamlam.com/2022/11/updated-findings-for-passthrough-of-intel-nuc-integrated-graphics-igpu.html for more details
2. No, ESXi does NOT support P/E Cores ... If you wish to enable them, then please see links referenced in blog post which requires an additional ESXi kernel boot option to prevent PSOD
I run 3 11th gen NUCs...does the 13th gen have the same thunderbolt power issues? I can only run 1 thunderbolt device on each...something to do with the way the NUCs hand out power to the thunderbolt ports...full power to only the first device plugged in.
for reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/intelnuc/comments/walwww/2_tb3_devices_at_the_same_time_on_nuc11_pro/
I have the intel nuc 13 pro i5. Installed with the Panic kernel option set to false. After 15 min everything is installed. Added my vm's (6). When i started the 3 vm i got the kernel panic Fatal CPU mismatch. Didn't had this problem on my 12th gen intel nuc i3 (10 cores available). I disabled the e-cores and its running but i'm missing 8 cores now.
See https://williamlam.com/2023/04/esxi-psod-due-to-gp-exception-13-in-world-with-intel-13th-generation-cpu.html as I assume you're running into this issue rather than the initial CPU miss-match (which has do do with CPU uniformity check)
Hi William,
Correct. I got the psod after installing esxi 8 on the intel nuc 13 i5. I noticed in the log file it’s always crashing when using cpu 4 or 5.
I notice, nuc 13th gen have lower base clock speed than nuc 11th gen.
And it must disable e-cores for correct issue POSD.
What about performance of nuc 13th after disable e-cores compare to nuc 11th ?
Hi, William. Could you please clarify if there is a problem with using non vPro CPUs in 13 gen? Or it just concerns 12 Gen? I mean TPM issue. I'm planning my lab and trying to choose between 12gen NUC (vPro 1250p) and 13gen NUC (non vPro i5-1340p).
Not sure what you mean by problems ... none of the TPM found in Intel NUC can be used as they do not meet requirements for ESXi. You can use vTPM (which does NOT require a physical TPM unless you wish to do attestation). Either model works based on your needs
I'm planning to purchase NUC13 Pro tall chassis. Just wondering if the following M2 drives works?
Samsung 980 PRO PCle 4.0 NVMe (2280) and
Western Digital PC SN740 2230 M.2 NVMe PCIe4 (2230)
sorry i think 2242 is more appropriate.
Western Digita SN530 M.2 2242 PCIe NVMe
I need to install the "nvme" fling to have it work on my NUC11 with vSphere 8
Hi Williams, A great and an easy to understand article. Thanks for your effrorts.
I have just received my NUC i7 13 pro today. I am absolutely new to vmware ESXi. Earlier I had been using virtualbox. But I want to switch to ESXi now.
You have recommended to disable the E-cores. So does that mean that we will use ESXi with 4 cores only and remaining 8 E cores will remain unused?
All other youtube videos and articles on how to install ESXi on NUC mention that we need to incorporate network driver from community contribution in order to get NUC's network card recognized. But also all these articles and videos are for 7.x version. But since, your article is for 8.x version. So I just want to confirm. Can I download the ESXi ISO image instead of bundle and make an bootable USB? and just boot NUC from it. And no other driver need to be worried about?
I will be highly obliged if you can answer my queries. I will start installation process only after received message from you.
Thanks in advance.
sanan
re: hybrid cores - Please see https://williamlam.com/2023/03/how-to-disable-the-efficiency-cores-e-cores-on-an-intel-nuc.html for your answer
re: ESXi version - Did you even read this blog post? It literally has the answer to your questions
Hi William I was able to fix the install of ESXi8 on intel nuc 13 with the cpuUniformity example you gave. And I was able to fix the PSOD with the ecores fix. This was for the base install of esx. I am now trying to install esx nested on top of this one. It is also failing with exception 13 in world....How do I adress the settings on the esxi nested install. I did try the cpuUniformity fix on the vm install but the issue still persists for the exception 13
I'm not seeing any issue w/my NUC 13 Pro ... however, I've opted to follow my recommendation of disabling E-Cores rather than ignoring the non-uniformity as that has/can introduce other issues which seems like that is what you're observing. Try ruling that out by simply disabling E-Cores and then retry your setup as I don't have any issues and why I've recommended against using the setting if you want to have a good overall experience
Hi William,
I installed only 2TB Samsung EVO SATA, tried installing ESXi 8.01, 7.03.., none of them installing on hardisk, used CD and also USB, nothing worked, also used switch autoPartition=TRUE, where as I can see the disk after installation as datastore, tried to create OSDATA partion manually and boot the esxi , still no luck. Where as the HD is being detected on BIOS, I can install UBuntu,Windows but not ESXi, tried updating the latest bios and ssd tool for intel NUC. Appreciate your inputs.
Thanks
Hi,
many thanks for all the information you provide, it really helps a lot!
But, there is one topic I am simply not able to solve: Getting a KVM-connection from my (mac) laptop, same network, to the nuc13 vpro.
there is no more "strg-p" obviously, everything should be in die BIOS.
Also, I am not able to find any documentation on KVM'ing a nuc13v7 on the internet, which is strange, but either I am too stupid or it is hidden carefully 🙂
I would appreciate any hints!
Cheers
I was wondering if you've noticed NUC 13 hanging in bootloader on soft-reboot? I'm seeing it semi-consistenly maybe 1h and 2-3 reboots later after cold-boot. It just hangs after "Located crypto module...". The specific strange anomaly is also that each time when it hangs, the header "Loading VMware ESXi" is missing.
Hello William
is it possible to use different NUC generations in one cluster? I can't see any Desktop CPUs Generations in EVC...
Have you had any issues with the "bootable device not found" saga? I have pressed every combination withing the BIOS and the thing does not boot after I install esxi