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VCF 9.0 Hardware Considerations

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While I have already shared this on my social media accounts, I still think it is still worth re-iterating this update as I know many of our users, partners and even employees are preparing for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0.

The Broadcom Compatibility Guide (BCG) has recently been updated to include a preliminary set of devices that will be supported with VCF 9.0, this a company first as the BCG is typically only released at the GA, which make it difficult for those currently in the planning process for hardware refresh.

It is VERY important to understand that VMware/Broadcom does NOT certify hardware and I/O devices, which is still a common miss-conception and/or FUD being thrown out in the community. Our OEM partners ultimately decide which devices to certify for each release and they may choose NOT to re-certify devices for a number of reasons including earlier end-of-sales and end-of-life support. This  is not unique to VCF 9.0 and it is not unique pre or post-acquisition of VMware.

In addition to reviewing the updated BCG, KB 391170 - Deprecated devices in ESXi 9.0 and implications for support was also just published last week that provides a list of specific deprecated and end-of-life devices that you can check specifically.

To assist and automate the inventory of your existing I/O devices and then cross-checking that against the BCG, I have created several PowerShell and PowerCLI scripts which you can refer to this blog post HERE for more detail.

I know many of our users are excited to get their hands with VCF 9.0 in their lab and may be looking for some guidance, recommendations or just wondering what will work. I do plan on publishing some additional resources that will be available to community at GA, including an internal crowdsourced of systems (mostly not on the BCG) that folks have had success with installing ESXi 9.0, so stay tuned for that information.

ESXi on GMKtec NucBox K11

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The GMKtec NucBox has been growing in popularity amongst the VMware community as a modern AMD Ryzen-based alternative to the Intel/ASUS NUC, offering many of the same advantages while avoiding some of the drawbacks of Intel's Hybrid CPU architecture.

In preparation for my upcoming session at the inaugural VMUG Connect Conference in April, I have been experimenting with several modern hardware options, with the goal of deploying the full VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) solution for use within a lab environment, while still staying budget friendly!

I know several folks have had great success with the GMKtec NucBox K8 Plus and it just so happens, while browsing the GMKtec website, I noticed an additional NucBox has just been released called the K11.


While the differences between the K8 Plus and K11 is pretty minimal, I was interested in validating some new hardware add-ons, so getting the latest hardware would hopefully give me the best chance!

In collaboration with the VMware {Code} team, I was able to get hands on with the latest GMKtec NucBox K11!

UPDATE (06/25/25) - The K11 can be used to run VCF 9.0, but you will NOT be able to run VCF Automation (VCFA). You can see how I have used the K11 is used in a "Hybrid" configuration in this blog post under Scenario 3.

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What's in the new VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) offers?

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Since the announcement of the two new VMware offerings: VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) at the end of 2023, I have been trying to wrap my head around the new offers and to better help me understand the next level of details, I have put together several diagrams across the various offers and applicable add-ons that can be purchased.

After sharing these diagrams internally, the feedback was extremely positive and I thought I would also share these diagrams with our users and partners who might still have questions around the new offers.

In addition, we have also published a VMware KB 95927 (Inventory Script) and VMware KB 96426 (Calculator Script) that can be used to help our users understand the new licensing model which uses both CPU cores and TiB (for vSAN storage sizing), please refer to the KB articles for more details.

Changelog:

  • 11/04/25 - Updated with VVF & VCF 9.x SKU including the new VMware Advanced Cyber Compliance offer
  • 11/08/24 - Updated with new SKU offers (vSphere Enterprise Plus & VCF Edge)
  • 03/20/24 - Updated with VMware Live Recovery (VLR includes LSR & LCR) and Private AI Foundation Add-On
  • 02/16/24 - Updated VCF w/CSP + new VMware by Broadcom theme colors
  • 02/13/24 - Removed 8TiB minimal purchase per new VMware KBs & updated VCF w/VMware Data Services Manager (DSM)
  • 01/12/24 - Updated VCF w/TAM, PSO and Learning Service Add-On
  • 01/09/24 - Updated VCF w/CSP Add-On and VCDR/RWR/SRM Add-On for VVS/VVEP

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.x


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