Since launching the MS-01 in 2024, Minisforum has steadily gained popularity for its unique design that sets it apart from established players in the small form factor (SFF) market. Following the successful launch of the MS-01, an Intel-based system, Minisforum had also released an AMD variant in the same form factor called the MS-A1.
Unlike the MS-01 which was fully compatible with VMware ESXi and widely used by the VMware community to deploy the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform, the MS-A1 was less ideal due to its use of Realtek-based network adapters, which are not compatible with ESXi.
When Minisforum announced the MS-A2 earlier this year at CES 2025, a proper successor to the MS-01, it generated a lot of excitement within the VMware community, especially for those looking to refresh their lab in preparation for the latest VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) release!
After several months of waiting, the MS-A2 has finally arrived! I have been spending countless hours experimenting with the MS-A2 using different configurations to understand whether it would be an ideal kit for running our newest VCF 9.0 release ?
ProTip: Orders directly from Minisforum may have a longer lead time than with Amazon (this MS-A2 7945HX Barebones kit is currently showing a delivery of next week!)
Compute
The MS-A2 comes in two CPU variants:
- AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX (16 Cores / 32 Threads)
- AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX (16 Cores / 32 Threads)
As shared in my minimal resources to run VCF 9.0 blog post, the primary consideration from a CPU perspective is to ensure that you have a system that can provision a 24 vCPU VM, which is used by VCF Automation (VCFA). This means at a minimum, your physical ESXi host must have at least 12 Cores / 24 Threads to satisfy that requirement and both of the MS-A2 options clearly provide that.
The 9955HX is using the latest Zen 5 architecture where as the 7945HX is using the previous Zen 4 architecture, both have simliar capabilities from VCF perspective, so where I think this really matters is in the pricing as the 9955HX is $871 and 7945HX is $639, which are discounted prices from the original MSRP.
If you have the funds and want the latest, you can go with Zen 5 system, but if you rather save some money and put that use elsewhere, I would recommend going with the 7945HX!
For memory, the MS-A2 supports 2 x DDR5 SODIMM and as several folks in the VMware community have already shared, the MS-A2 works with the latest 64GB DDR5 SODIMM modules, which will give you a total of 128GB memory! You will definitely want to max out the memory, especially if you plan on deploying VCF 9.0 and taking advantage of all the new capabilities!
Network
The MS-A2 comes with 4 built-in network adaptors:
- 2 x 10GbE Intel X710 SFP+ (NIC 1 & 2 from the left)
- 1 x 2.5GbE Intel i226-V (NIC 3 from the left)
- 1 x 2.5GbE RTL8125 (NIC 4 from the left)
Both ESXi 8.0 and 9.0 fully recognize the Intel-based network adaptors and as expected the Realtek network adaptor are not recognized due to the lack of ESXi drivers from Realtek. From a VCF perspective, you not only have 10GbE networking, which is recommended when using vSAN but you have a pair of them for redundancy and/or scale, not to mention the 2.5gbE which can be dedicated for ESXi management network.
To test additional networking configurations, I had also purchased this 10GbE SFP+ to Copper Transceiver, as I did not have an SFP+ capable switch/router and allowed me to make use of the Intel X710 on the MS-A2.
Storage
Similar to the MS-01, the MS-A2 can support a combination of M.2 and/or U.2 devices, the following configurations are possible:
- Configuration 1 - All M.2 SSDs
- 1 x PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD (2280/22110)
- 1 x PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD (2280/22110)
- 1 x PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD (2280)
- Configuration 2 - M.2 + U.2 SSDs
- 1 x PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD (2280/22110)
- 1 x PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD (2280/22110)
- 1 x PCIe Gen 4 U.2 SSD (7mm ONLY)
With the support for 3 storage devices, you do not have to resort to these creative tricks, which is typically required if you are using a traditional 4x4 system that only has support for 2 storage devices. The MS-A2 can have have ESXi installation, ESX-OSData and spare VMFS volume on one device, while allowing you to make use of the two other storage devices in various combinations from using NVMe Tiering to vSAN OSA or ESA depending on your preference.
The U.2 interface does provide for a more broader set of SSD devices, include those that support NVMe namespaces like the Samsung PM9A3, which would allow you to carve out a single SSD for multiple purposes including ESXi OS-Data, VMFS volumes and vSAN all on a single device! Just keep in mind that most consumer U.2 SSD do NOT support more than one NVMe namespace, so you will most likely need to look at prosumer/Enterprise U.2 SSD and just make sure they are 7mm, since that is size restriction on the MS-A2.
I have been using Configuration 1 for my VCF 9 setup, since affordable U.2 SSDs that have support for more than one NVMe namespaces are not easy to find and I have plenty of M.2 NVMe devices that I typically use.
- NVMe 1: ESXi installation, ESX-OSData and VMFS volume
- NVMe 2: NVMe Tiering
- NVMe 3: vSAN ESA
IO Expansion
The MS-A2 also includes a single half-height low profile (HHLP) PCIe 4.0 x8 adaptor that can provide additional IO (network or storage) or graphics capabilities. If you are interested in seeing what other devices can run using the HHLP slot, check out this Serve The Home forum post that is cataloging what folks have tried with the original MS-01, which should also apply to the MS-A2.
Form Factor
The chassis of the MS-A2 is extremely compact with all the capabilities that it can pack. When compared to the popular Supermicro E200-8D, it is slightly taller in height but makes up in length, which is pretty impressive from a design perspective.
With that said ... I do want to make folks aware of something very important, which potential noise the system can make while being under load. This is probably the only "negative" thing I would have to say about the MS-A2 and I have definitely been putting the MS-A2 through its paces both from a CPU and memory perspective for the past couple of weeks.
Even after ESXi has just been installed on the system and I am deploying the VCF 9.0 Installer appliance and/or pulling down the VCF binaries, I have found that the fan automatically kicks in and it is definitely noticeable, especially when you start running more workloads. I recently shared this video where I was deploying VCF 9 and you can hear the fan running, while not as loud as E200-8D, it definitely is audible and can be distracting if it is sitting next to you, which my MS-A2 was!
I have been looking online to see if anyone has been able to do anything about the noise, such as replacing the fan and while there have been suggestions to look at Noctura fans, the MS-A2 uses a custom fan design, so you can not just replace it. This would be my only feedback that while I apperciate the super compact form factor, it would have been nice to find a balance in reducing the overall noise since most will want to use most of the capabilities the MS-A2 has to offer.
While the MS-A2 is designed to sit horizontally, I have found the chassis gets quite warm and by placing it vertical, it seems to have helped with dispersing the heat a bit but has not done too much for the fan noise which spins up and then spins right back down in a repeating pattern depending on the load being placed on the system.
Security
The TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip that is included in the MS-A2 is same as MS-01/A1, which is an fTPm and only supports the CRB (Command-Response Buffer) protocol and not the required industry standard FIFO (First In, First Out), which is a requirement for ESXi support. While this is not a deal breaker, this is pretty much the expectation for the majority of consumer SFF systems.
ESXi
As expected, the MS-A2 installs the latest ESXi 9.0 and ESXi 8.0 releases without any issues. All storage and networking devices are automatically recognized without any additional workarounds!
Note: If you are planning to use NVMe Tiering on MS-A2 (or any other AMD Ryzen-based platform), you will NEED to apply this workaround or you will see some inconsistent VM power on behaviors.
Firmware
See this blog post HERE on how to update to the latest firmware for your MS-A2 before you start using it.
VMware Cloud Foundation
Can the MS-A2 be used for VCF?
Absolutely, I would say the MS-A2 is one of the more recent SFF system that is balanced in terms of pricing and capabilities that can meet the needs of VCF 9.0. There are certainly many other new systems that have been released in 2025 with similiar capabilities, but the pricing can easily be 2-3x more expensive due to use of LPDDR5 and in many cases, do not offer the level of flexibility as the MS-A2.
Having spent MANY hours with the MS-A2, I have come up with a few different scenarios (easy to hard) in which you can use the MS-A2 to deploy the full VCF 9.0 platform and meet the minimal resource requirements. Depending on your constraints (financial, experience and effort), you can use one of the following scenarios.
Scenario 1:
- Effort:
- 🧠
- Host Count:
- 3 x MS-A2
- Workarounds:
- None
Scenario 2:
- Effort:
- 🧠🧠
- Host Count:
- 2 x MS-A2
- Workarounds:
Scenario 3:
- Effort:
- 🧠🧠🧠🧠
- Host Count:
- 1 x MS-A2
- 1 x Other system (e.g. GMKtec K11/K8+)
- CPU: 8 Core / 16 Thread
- Memory: 128GB
- Storage: 2 x NVMe
- Workarounds:
- Apply single ESXi host support on the VCF Installer
- Apply different ESXi host vendor trick (if Other system is different hardware vendor)
- Apply NVMe Tiering for AMD Ryzen systems
- Apply shared NVMe for ESX-OSData, NVMe Tiering & VMFS (applicable if you only have 2 NVMe devices)
Please see this blog post for reference implementation 1 or 2 (I currently have 1 implemented)
Here is a reference implementation of Scenario 3, since I do not have 2 x MS-A2:
1 x Minisforum MS-A2 w/128GB memory + NVMe Tiering configured to 100%1 x GMKtec K11 w/128GB memory + NVMe Tiering configured to 100%
I was waiting for this. Very awesome and detailed writeup, thank you!
Would partial VCF also be an option, as you have written in your other post like the ASUS NUC 15 Pro without VCFA?
I'm willing to try, learn and debug, but I would really like to just try this without expanding my resources and funds.
William, you are hiiting it out of the park, thank you. Based on your Virtual ESXi articles I've been running vESXi for years. 1 physical Supermicro 16 logical procs CPU, 256GB RAM and Nexentastor iSCSI for storage which host 5 vESXi servers running srm, view, ad, vcenter, vrealize, vrops, etc... Did a great job over the years for learning. Used VMUG Advantage to license it all.
Here we are today, trying to figure a way forward. All this to run VCF9, but will it also run all mentioned above? Still need to stay sharp on the suite, not just VCF? No more VMUG license, have to obtain a cert for VCF to get a license for VCF thru Broadcom. Best route below is at least $2,400 and that doesn't include a new 10G switch. That's in order to run other products other than just VCF. Huge committment, trying to determine if I'm in the game anymore. Love VMware, all about choice and freedom "yes VMworld shirt". Thanks again
I'm pretty new to your website--REALLY appreciate all of the work that you do for home labs! Looking at the different scenarios you listed, it looks like I can't just buy one MS-A2 and call it good? Is that not enough hardware to run VCF with a mgmt domain and a VI workload domain? Is that the purpose of including the Other System in the list of hosts?
Killer review William! The amount of detail in this post is staggering. It answered all the questions I had about memory, network, and storage support. The VCF deployment options were very helpful.
William,
Great write up! One thing you can add and I have done this on both my MS-01 and MS-A2 is add an Wireless for M.2 A/E for Key Slot - M.2 adapter card, then you swap out the wifi module for a small ESX only boot drive. Keep in-mind you will be limited to 2230 sized drives. But this helps even simplify the storage architecture even more.
Looking forward to deploying VCF 9 soon (gotta pass my 5.2 cert before learning the new jargon).
love the way effort is the numbers of brain u need!
Is there any chance to run VCF9 as a nested environment on MS-A2 with NVMe memory tiering?
See https://williamlam.com/2025/06/nvme-tiering-with-nested-virtualization-in-vcf-9-0.html
Alternatively, you could use ESXi 8.0U3 for physical host, enable NVMe Tiering and then run Nested ESXi 9 on top
Really curious how many are still hanging on?
Only have two VMware environments left from numerous - a physical Dev environment and my personal home environment. The Dev environment only has one customer left and they are 3/4 of the way to leaving the platform. My home environment used to be a multi-node physical cluster, but is down to one lone box awaiting the next platform (KVM, Prox, or other).
There has been such an outfall from Broadcom that most have accelerated their CSP initiatives or chosen new platforms like OpenShift.
So, I was wondering if this compute platform announcement rang hollow for anyone else as there just wasnt anything to put on it?
Hello WIlliam! Thanks for a great article!
I'm currently fighting with my MS-A2 cluster and can't get working the NVMe tiering properly combined with OSDATA and Datastore partition. After applying the settings with your script https://github.com/lamw/vmware-scripts/blob/master/shell/createSharedNVMeTeiringOSDataAndVMFSPartitions.sh on my dedicated Micron 7450 Pro 3.84Tb (512 Gb for tiering, 64 GB for OSDATA)
I'm trying to open logs which are stored in /scratch/log and system not opening the folder and immediately it starts in DCUI to spam with errors:
2025-07-24T09:33:07.429Z cpu0:2097807)WARNING: NvmeUtil: 764: Received transport level error (6), this is not expected
2025-07-24T09:33:07.429Z cpu0:2097807)WARNING: NVMEIO:2661 command 0x45792fef0ac0 failed: ctlr 258, queue 1, psaCmd 0x457901f90400
2025-07-24T09:33:07.429Z cpu0:2097807)WARNING: NVMEPSA:217 Complete vmkNvmeCmd: 0x45792fef0ac0, vmkPsaCmd: 0x457901f90400, cmdId ...
This error is every couple of milliseconds and system can't reboot until I will power it off physically.
ctlr 258 = Controller of Micron 7450 Pro devices. The same picture is on all 3 devices. I've already tried to replace NVMe with another devices - same thing. BIOS upgraded to latest version, BIOS resetted, all settings are default in BIOS. Tried to install SSD in slot 2/3 - same result. Slot 0 is used for Kingston U.2 15.36 Tb.
If you have any idea - let me know, please.
Alexey - Given you've tried several slots/devices, its very possible the system itself could be defective. I don't have the configuration you're using, since there is 3 slots, I'm able to comfortable deploy ESXi/Local VMFS on NVMe1, NVMe Tiering on NVMe2 & vSAN ESA for NVMe3 and I've setup several systems without any issues with the referenced BOM. Its not clear on where your ESXi installation resides, it seems like from the mention of your logs, it might be on USB? If so, consider placing it on SSD (if it isn't already) and perhaps you may want to rule system itself by unbundling of the NVMe Tiering / ESXi-OSData just to see if you're having issues, that would clearly tell you its system.
I did learn from someone internally that the BIOs also allows you to specify whether the NVMe slots are running Gen 3 or Gen 4 with the caution that Gen 4 could cause some overheating, didn't even know that! You could check whether you're using default, which should be Gen 3.
"Given you've tried several slots/devices, its very possible the system itself could be defective."
At least that situation is already 2 units. After reboot Micron device is just gone.
"Its not clear on where your ESXi installation resides"
Forgot to mention, that I've replaced WiFi card with M.2 (A+E Key) 2230MM to NVME M-Key Expansion Card Adapter and added 256Gb ORICO SSD for a boot device. That allows me to use all 3 slots for system.
"system itself by unbundling of the NVMe Tiering / ESXi-OSData just to see if you're having issues, that would clearly tell you its system."
Yes, I will try to apply that solution with binding the whole Micron SSD to Tiering device on one left still working device.
"You could check whether you're using default, which should be Gen 3."
By default, in BIOS they are setup as Gen3 for slot 1 & 2. Currently, I didn't change that setting to just make it work 😀 Later, I will look into temps and maybe do the change to Gen4 speeds for Kingston and Micron device slots. Setup is currently placed in the DataCenter and there shouldn't be a big issue with cooling.
Overheat was the issue, I've printed a new case with 2x40mm fans on the front to have an airflow in the rack and now installation of VCF9 was successful. Thanks a lot!
How did you measure the temperature and which was critical?
Alex, Mind sharing the case you printed? Thanks!
Do you have any information about power usage for the MS-A2 running VCF?
I don't ... this will highly depend on what you've got deployed and how you're using the environment 🙂
Well, can't be that much worse than my 3x i7 8700 systems, I guess I will try it out then and maybe setup VCF on 3x MS-A2. Thanks for the great blog!
Do share what you find out!
How much memory does a minimum installation of VCF 9 use William I see around 250gb in your pictures?
See the VCF Resources section in https://williamlam.com/2025/06/ultimate-lab-resource-for-vcf-9-0.html
I installed Esxi 7 on MS-A2 as a test. NIC cards show but does not work, what am i missing?
AMD Ryzen 9 9959HX (16 Cores / 32 Threads)
AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX (16 Cores / 32 Threads)
William, copied from Above. I think the 9959HX is a typo as I can only find 9955HX. Considering the purchase of this system since the 7945HX is not available. Also would the 9955HX work with the BOM your shared for the 7945HX. I assume the only diiference in these 2 systems is the CPU.
Thanks
Apologies Tom, it should be 9955HX and yes, both model would work
I have gotten my MS-A2 up and running with ESXI 8.0.3. My only issue is the ethernet adapter is running at 100Mbps and I can't get it to run at 1Gbps. The SFP ports run at 1Gbps without a problem. Have you heard of this. I have tried forcing it to 1Gbps, but I get an error.
Otherwise I love this little machine. I am going to try memory tiering next week.
Seems that Minisforum has discontinued the MS-A2 (posted on my questions about restock in their discord). Very sad to hear that such a great product is not longer avaiable.
Marcel,
I ordered an additional unit from AMZ (USA), Not sure if Minisforum is just discontinuing this model in the EU market?