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Hardware Options

Since XCP-NG is a Type 1 Hypervisor, the bare minimum hardware requirements are below:

  • 64-Bit x86 CPU, 1.5 Ghz clock speed minimum
  • 2 GB minimum
  • 46 GB disk space minimum
  • 10/100 Mb/s NIC

However, as always, minimum requirement does not mean that you will have a good time with the software when using it. For a hypervisor, consider the following when choosing your hardware:

  • Multi-Core CPU. The more cores you have, the better you can run your VMs
  • As much RAM as you have. More RAM = More running VMs
  • 2+ SSDs for the XCP-NG OS install in RAID 1
  • 2+ Gigabit or higher networking. Ideally use one NIC for management and the other for VMs

Similar to VMWare's Hardware Compatibility List, XCP-NG also have an official Hardware Compatibility List. XCP-NG is supported on any hardware that's listed on Citrix Hypervisor's Hardware Compatibility List. You can read more about hardware compatibility list from the official documentation here: https://xcp-ng.org/docs/hardware.html

In my homelab, I run my XCP-NG hosts on Lenovo Tiny PCs, specifily the M720q Tiny models and M920q Tiny models. Those tiny PCs are small, quiet, and can pack a lot of hardware in it.

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I fitted each nodes with an i5-8500 (6 cores 6 threads), 64GB (2x32GB) RAM, Chelsio T4220-CR NIC (2x 10G SFP+, 2x 1G RJ45), 256GB NVMe SSD, 256GB SATA SSD.

The Chelsio T422-CR NIC allows me to have a dedicated 10G for shared stroage, dedicated 10G for general traffic, dedicated 1G for management, and a dedicated 1G for DMZ network. 

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