What are /r/esxi's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Use Veeam backups, that my advice. Specially for ramsomware attacks, outside of the production cluster/setup. It the customer does not want to pay for it, tell them to fuck off.

Or else, risk with an - arguably - inferior solution that is free:

https://alternativeto.net/software/veeam-backup/?license=free

There is no more to it.

So, I put SATA drives in, 2x1Tb. I used these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D998212/ref=pe_27063361_487055811_TE_dp_2?th=1

I wasn't able to put them into a RAID array because the controller isn't supported, but I only have these two drives in the server now with two separate datastore.

The server is only running two windows 10 VM's, one off each drive. Performance is OK, but its certainly a little more sluggish than I'd imagine for a fresh windows installation not running anything at all. Even when I only have one VM powered on, the host CPU And memory is right around 30% but it still feels slow.

Is there anything else I can check? I Feel like there is some config I perhaps have wrong thats slowing it down...

You could export the config and import it to a fresh install. Not as comfortable as cloning a drive but you can do it remotely.

Veeam B&R Community edition is free for 10 workloads BUT it's free for more than that in VMs if you're ok with using the VeeamZIP option (no incremental backups). It might be an option. https://www.veeam.com/virtual-machine-backup-solution-free.html. I have a much smaller setup, only one host with 5 VMs and some physical servers and it's working great on a schedule for me.

I've done something similar to what you're talking where you have a separate lab VLAN that is isolated from everything else on the network. I bought this switch on sale a few months ago and it's been working great for this purpose. I have a 48 port cisco switch that I prefer for lab/learning purposes but it's far too loud and power hungry to justify leaving it on all the time, so this is a good compromise.

Well just an FYI, 10gb won’t help with response times. It only helps when your transferring large files. Response times sounds like a server issue and you have to use jumbo frames to get the full benefit from it. The mikrotik linked below is probably the cheapest new 10gb only switch you can buy. You will need either dac cables or sfp+ modules and lc to lc fiber patch cords.

eBay has the best deals on 10gb cards, and sfp+ modules. Just search for each of those on ebay. Some nic cards require specific sfp+ modules. Like intels x510 10gb cards only work with dac cables or intel specific sfp+.

MikroTik 5-Port Desktop Switch, 1 Gigabit Ethernet Port, 4 SFP+ 10Gbps Ports (CRS305-1G-4S+IN) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LFKGP1L/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_YKPHN68NXWS2GHYK2S1Z

Where would I find a list of all supported NICs for ESXi? I found this one on amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Gigabit-Network-Adapter-EXPI9301CTBLK/dp/B001CY0P7G/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=intel+nic&qid=1581594069&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011&rnid=2470954011&rps=1&sr=8-3