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DDR5 SODIMM capable kits for ESXi

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After successfully confirming the new non-binary 48GB DDR5 SODIMM modules (96GB total) is fully functional with any DDR5 capable system, I started receiving questions about which DDR5 kits are currently available today and that can also be used with ESXi?

The ASUS PN64-E1 is definitely a top contender for anyone in the market for a new or updated VMware Homelab and it was also the system that I had used to verify the new DDR5 memory. In addition to the PN64-E1, the following kits listed below from my research also supports DDR5 SODIMM memory and would also be compatible with ESXi.

Note: While there are other DDR5 kits out in the market, especially those with an AMD CPU, they are not viable with ESXi as the onboard networking uses a Realtek network adapter and there are no ESXi drivers from Realtek.

If folks are aware of other kits that are both DDR5 compatible and would also function with ESXi, feel free to share by leaving a comment below.

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How to install all versions of ESX and ESXi in VM?

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Thanks goodness for Virtualization and the ability to easily install ANY operating system inside of a vSphere Virtual Machine including the very first release of ESX 1.0, which is more than 22 years old now.


While going through the process of installing each of the major VMware ESX and ESXi releases, I had made notes for each of the VM configurations that I had used and any other issues I may have ran into. Figured I share this information in case anyone might be interested and this would also provide an online searchable reference in case I ever need to do this again for my future-self 😀

In addition to recording each installation, which you can watch via the Youtube playlists below, I also had some fun putting together this short compilation that summarizes all the VMware ESX and ESXi releases over the past 22 years. Definitely recommend checking it out and be sure to 👍🔊😉

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Is my vSphere Cluster managed by vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) as a Desired Image or Baseline?

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Prior to vSphere 7.0, ESXi lifecycle management has been provided by vSphere Update Manager (VUM), which has been around for more than a decade plus and is most likely what you are still using today. With the release of vSphere 7.0, VMware introduced a brand new lifecycle management solution for ESXi called vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM), which you can read more about HERE.


While VMware has made it clear that vLCM will be the future going forward for ESXi lifecycle management, we also understand that most customers will still be using the existing VUM-based solution and we wanted to make sure it was easy to  transition between the two solutions, especially within the vSphere UI.

An interesting question was recently brought up was how to determine whether a vSphere Cluster was using the new vLCM solution based on desired images versus VUM, which uses baselines?

Note: If you are not familiar between vLCM Desired Image and VUM Baselines, be sure to check out this helpful resource HERE.

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