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First look at the new Supermicro E302-12D (Ice Lake D)

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The Intel Xeon D embedded SoC product line is an amazing platform and has been extremely popular amongst VMware customers for VMware Homelabs and running workloads both in the Datacenter and at the Edge using kits like the Supermicro E200-8D and E300-9D to just name a few. While the E200-8D/E300-9D still remain popular, they are slowly coming up on their end of life support, Q1 2023 and Q1 2025 respectively.

Intel Ice Lake D is the first major architectural refresh of the Intel Xeon D product line, which is quite exciting for those looking to upgrade and take advantage of all the latest hardware capabilities this new platform as to offer! Two Ice Lake D kits that I am really excited for is the Supermicro E300-12D and E302-12D, both of which leverage the new Ice Lake D SoC. As a E200-8D owner, my only real nit pick is with the noise of the fans which can sound like a jet engine when using the stock fans. Although I have replaced the stock fans with the much quieter Noctua fans, under higher load the system is still audible and some in the community have also reported that it may still not be enough to cool system.

If I had to start all over again, I certainly would be looking at one of the new fanless kit from Supermicro! I was fortunate enough to get my handsĀ on the upcoming Supermicro E302-12D system, a fanless Ice Lake D kit which has a similiar design to the existing E300-9D.

So here is your first sneak peak at this new Ice Lake D platform! šŸ˜€

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2022 VMUG Advantage Community Group Buy

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It is that time of the year again, the event that you all have been waiting for ... the annual VMUG Advantage Community Group Buy! šŸ˜€


For those not familiar with the VMUG Advantage membership, itĀ provides benefits such as access to training, VMworld discounts but also to EVALExperience, which provides you with 365-days access (non-production usage) to the latest VMware solutions such as vSphere, vSAN, NSX, vRealize, Tanzu and VMware Cloud Foundation. The EVALExperience alone is worth the normal $200 USD membership fee and is certainly one of the cheapest and easiest way to get access to all the latest VMware offerings for homelab and educational purposes.

Here are other benefits of VMUG Advantage:

  • Access to VMware Test Drive
  • 20-35% discounts on VMware training and certification
  • This 15% discount is only offered once a year through this offer
  • Advantage members receive $100 USD VMware Explore Discount (not stackable)
  • Full list of Advantage Benefits: https://www.vmug.com/membership/vmug-advantage-membership

The table below provides the respective discounts based on the quantity of VMUG Advantage membership purchases. The larger the interests group, the larger the discount.

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New VMware Community HCL

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If you are not using or can not use the official VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) to identify hardware systems and components that are officially supported with a given version of vSphere ESXi, then the experience in finding hardware can be quite daunting for both new and even existing users. Typically, users might start off by searching online or posting in the VMTN Community Forums and although I have attempted to help in this space with my VMware Community Homelab project, which attempts to crowd source working configuration and build-of-materials (BOM) that can assist, it certainly is a big challenge.

Even if you are successful in the initial assessment, there are no guarantees that your hardware configuration will be compatible with future vSphere ESXi releases and the investigative process will likely have to start all over again or simply with trial and error, which can also be frustrating for new users. I have always wanted and I know many of you in the community have also expressed similiar options in having a VMware Community HCL that can be used and maintain by the community.

Today, I am excited to share that we now have a platform that can enable an "unofficial" VMware Community HCL!

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