How-To

VMware ESXi 8 on a Raspberry Pi 5

• By Tom Fenton
• 01/23/2025

In 2020, I went on a writing spree, producing several articles about running VMware's bare-metal, type 1 hypervisor, ESXi 7, on a Raspberry Pi 4. In fact, I wrote so many that a publisher from Springer contacted me to write a book on the topic, which I did. The book, "Running ESXi on a Raspberry Pi," performed well. The success of the articles and the book can be attributed to the fact that the setups provided an affordable way for people to explore VMware's ESXi hypervisor and management platform (vCenter Server). With the Raspberry Pi costing less than $100 and a 180-day free trial license for ESXi, it was a cost-effective learning platform.

Since then, I got distracted by other projects and didn't touch the subject for a while. But in late 2024, Raspberry Pi released the Pi 500, basically their new top-of-the-line computer, the Pi 5, with 8GB of RAM inside a keyboard. At the start of this year, they released a Pi 5 with 16 GB of RAM, which excited me about Pi again as the 16GB would allow more workloads. However, to start this series of articles, I will see if the Pi 500 can run ESXi, as I love its keyboard form factor.

In this article, I will give an overview of ESXi on Pi and, in subsequent articles, see if ESXi 8 can be installed and used on the Pi 500 and Pi 5.

It should be noted that none of these articles could have been possible without the support and information provided by the ESXi community and its leaders, most notably William Lam, a distinguished platform engineering architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom and a fount of knowledge on all things VMware related.

Overview of ESXi on ARM
Although this article is about running ESXi on Pi 5-based computers, VMware did not build and release it specifically to run on a Pi; they built it for ARM processors. It just so happens that it runs on Pi systems with ARM processors and is a "Fling" rather than production code.

More specifically, VMware's ESXi on ARM Fling is a community-driven initiative exploring the potential of running ESXi on ARM-based processors known for their low cost, flexible architecture, energy efficiency, and performance. This Fling is an experimental release, allowing users to test the technology and provide feedback for future official products.

The ESXi on ARM Fling supports ARM-based devices beyond the Raspberry Pi. VMware categorizes ARM-based hardware into three categories: Datacenter, Near Edge, and Far Edge, with the Raspberry Pi falling under the latter. I've chosen Pi 5-based systems for this article due to their form factor and affordability, costing less than $100 USD for the 8GB model. It offers a good balance of features, including two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, two Micro HDMI ports, and Gigabit Ethernet, which, unfortunately, is not supported, so I will need a USB-to-Ethernet adapter. I need to note that the Pi 4 also had two USB 3.0 ports, but they shared a bus, so you had a max of 5Gbps shared between them, while the two USB 3.0 ports on the Pi 5 supported simultaneous 5Gbps operation.

For more information about the Pi 500, you can read my previous article.

ESXi 8
Since I last worked with running ESXI on a Pi, the ESXi version has been updated to 8.

ESXi 8 focused on performance, AI, and modern workloads. To accomplish this, it introduced support for Data Processing Units (DPUs), allowing the offloading of network, storage, and security tasks to specialized hardware, freeing up CPU resources, and improving performance for large-scale environments. Many DPUs have ARM processors in them.

ESXi 8 also increased scalability, with higher limits for virtual machines (VMs), such as supporting up to 32 vGPUs per VM and higher per-host memory capacity. Furthermore, it delivered enhanced storage optimizations, including support for NVMe/TCP storage arrays, which increases efficiency in handling large-scale data workloads. The expanded Kubernetes integration in ESXi 8 improves management and orchestration for cloud-native applications, making it particularly suitable for AI/ML and data-intensive computing environments. All of the enhancements to ESXi 8 over 7 are more pertinent to larger x64 and ARM servers than the Pi. The interface to ESXi (ESXi Host Console) has been updated, and many workflows have changed since my previous series of articles.

Raspberry Pi 5
Those who followed my articles about running ESXi on the Raspberry Pi 4 (still for sale) should know how the Pi 5 differs from it, particularly in terms of performance and features. The Pi 4 has a quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 processor running at 1.5GHz, while the Pi 5 features a more powerful ARM Cortex-A76 processor with a higher clock speed, leading to better processing capabilities. The Pi 5 also includes more advanced graphics support with the VideoCore VII GPU than the Pi 4's VideoCore VI, which enhances its multimedia performance.

Both models offer similar ports in terms of connectivity and expansion, such as USB, Ethernet, and HDMI, but the Pi 5 comes with improved USB 3.0 support, which enhances data transfer speeds compared to the Pi 4. The Raspberry Pi 5 also supports PCIe, opening possibilities for additional hardware expansion like NVMe storage, which is absent in the Pi 4. These advancements make the Pi 5 more suitable for projects requiring faster storage and expansion capabilities.

Power efficiency and thermals also see improvements in the Raspberry Pi 5. Although both models are designed for low-power applications, the Pi 5 uses a more efficient power delivery system that allows it to handle more demanding tasks without overheating as quickly. Overall, while the Raspberry Pi 4 remains a versatile and affordable option for basic projects, the Pi 5 offers significant performance, connectivity, and expandability upgrades, making it a better choice for more complex and resource-intensive applications. The $5 cost difference between an 8 GB Pi 4 ($75), 8 GB Pi 5 ($80), and an 8 GB Pi 500 ($90) makes it a no-brainer to use a Pi 5-based system.

The folks over at MC Hobby have a nice layout of the Pi 5. Of note are its two USB 3.0 ports and a PCIe 2.0 port. The USB-C port is only used for power. Sadly, the PCIe port is not available on the Pi 500.

Requirements for ESXi on ARM
We first need to discuss the licensing for ESXi on ARM. As it is not a production product, it is offered with a 180-day license for evaluation purposes, a considerable upgrade from the usual 60-day evaluation period for other VMware products. When your license expires, you will need to reinstall it, but with some planning, you can preserve your VMs. If you have an ESXi-x86 license that is not being used, you can use it, and the license will not expire.

To download the Fling, you will need to have a free Broadcom account. Once you create an account, the ESXi-ARM packages can be downloaded from the ESXi-ARM VMware Customer Connect site.

I downloaded ESXi-ARM-ISO-2.1-dl.zip and unzipped it. The documentation is a PDF about installing ESXi on a Pi, which says that the Pi 4 Model B and Pi 5 with at least 8GB are supported. You will also need a microSD card for UEFI firmware and a USB drive for installer ISO. ESXi will be installed on a USB drive.

The PI 4 B supports the onboard GbE NIC, but you will need a USB NIC for the Pi 5. Only specific USB NICs are supported. I will be using a TP-Link UE300 USB-A-to-ethernet adapter.

Thoughts on ESXi 8 on a Pi 500
Although VMware did not specifically design ESXi to run on Raspberry Pi, doing so has become extremely popular. Previously, I used ESXi 7, but now ESXi 8 is the latest version, and I look forward to seeing if there are any noticeable differences when running it on a Pi 5-based system. The Pi 5, compared to the Pi 4, should offer better performance as it has a more powerful ARM Cortex-A76 processor, better graphics, and expanded connectivity options such as USB 3.0 and PCIe support. ESXi on ARM has limitations, such as a 180-day evaluation, but it is an excellent platform for those who want to become accustomed to working with ESXi and vSphere.

Next, I will focus on installing and using ESXi 8 on Pi 5-based systems.