It had been a while since I had last updated my homelab vmware environment, 7.0u2a was the last update to be precise. Since the release of ESXi 7.0u3, I had been waiting for the USB NIC fling 7.0u3 supported release for upgrading my homelab. The usb nic fling for 7.0u3 was released on November 10th, which is when I decided to finally update my homelab ESXi hosts.
I was successfully able to update my homelab to ESXi 7.0u3b along with the USB nic fling. This post is to confirm that the below hardware is compatible with ESXi 7.0u3, and no incompatibilities have been observed so far.
HOSTS:
- Intel NUC 10th GEN, i5- Inbuilt nic is detected out of the box, no community drivers required.
- Samsung EVO 500GB NVMe SSD for datastore
- Kingston Datatraveller 32GB (Boot media)
- TPlink USB3.0 NIC
Note: None of this is supported on the VMware HCL and must not be used in a production environment.
I manually installed the NIC fling VIB post installation, however, you can bundle the VIB into custom ISO, follow the steps mentioned here: VMware ESXi 7.0 Update 3 on Intel NUC | virten.net
One point of notice to be kept in mind for all homelab owners, with the release of ESXi 7.0u3b, Vmware has annouced the deprecation of USB/SD card as supported devices for boot media. This means that we would not be able to use our USB drives as boot media in homelabs; this was a very efficient vehicle for the boot media in homelabs.