Before you configure the bare metal server, make sure that your server meets the supported requirements.

Important: The user performing the installation may require sudo command permissions for some of the procedures. See Install Third-Party Packages on a Physical Server.

Bare Metal Server Requirements

Operating System Version CPU Cores Memory
CentOS Linux

7.6 (kernel: 3.10.0-957)

7.7

7.8

7.9

8.0

8.3

 4 16 GB
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

7.6 (kernel: 3.10.0-957)

7.7

7.8

7.9

8.0

8.3

 4 16 GB
Oracle Linux

7.6 (kernel: 3.10.0-957)

7.7

7.8

7.9

 4 16 GB
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3

12 SP4

12 SP5 ( (starting in NSX-T Data Center 3.2.1)

 4 16 GB
Ubuntu

16.04.2 LTS (kernel: 4.4.0-*)

18.04

 4 16 GB
Windows Server 2016 (minor version 14393.2248 and later)

2019

 4 16 GB
  • Ensure MTU is set to 1600 for Jumbo frame support by NIC or OS drivers.
  • Hosts running Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS must be upgraded from 16.04 or freshly installed.
Table 1. Physical NICs
NIC Type Description PCI BUS ID Firmware Version
Broadcom BCM5719 Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5719 Gigabit Ethernet 0000:03:00 1.5.14.0 and later
Intel X710 Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GbE SFP+ 0000:1a:00 6.00 0x800034e6 18.3.6 and later
Intel 2P X710/2P I350 Intel Corporation Gigabit 4P X710/I350 rNDC 0000:01:00 1.67.0:0x80000fa8:19.0.12 and later
Intel 2P I350-t Intel Corporation Ethernet Server Adapter I350-T2 0000:5e:00

1.67.0:0x80000fba:19.0.12 an later
Intel 2P X520 Intel(R) Ethernet 10G 2P X520 Adapter 0000:03:00:1 1.7.1.26
Table 2. Virtual NICs
NIC Type Description PCI BUS ID Firmware Version
e1000e Intel(R) 82574L Gigabit Network 0000:1b:00 12.15.22.6 and later version
vmxnet3 vmxnet3 Ethernet Adapter 0000:0b:00 1.9.2.0 and later version