VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on Minisforum MS-A2

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 9959HX (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 9959HX 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 9959HX 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!

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:
  • Apply single ESXi host support on the VCF Installer

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)

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%