NUC8i7BEH sleep/wake issues with ESXi 6.5 and 6.7

[jbfriedrich]

I am using a NUC7i5BNH, NUC7i7DNHE and a NUC8i7BEH with the latest version of VMware ESXi 6.7. All of them use the latest Intel BIOS and the latest VMware patch level.

The NUC7i5BNH and the NUC7i7DNHE enter sleep mode without any issue and VMware is able to wake them up (or I can do it myself using the wakeonlan tool).

Only the NUC8i7BEH can not enter sleep mode. Whenever I activate standby in ESXi, the system seems to shut down instead of entering the standby state. Neither VMware ESXi, nor the wakeonlan tool can wake the system. The only thing that works is to press the power button and the system boots normally.

I tried all combinations of the BIOS power settings, but nothing seems to make a difference. Nothing seems to work. I wonder if this is a BIOS issue, and Intel would need to provide an updated version for the NUC to work properly. As far as I know, VMware uses a standard command to enable standby/sleep mode, which works the two older NUCs. Nothing special out of the ordinary.

Any help is much appreciated!

[Alberto_R_Intel]

jbfriedrich, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.

Just to let you know, Intel® validated and tested the Intel® NUC Kit NUC8i7BEH with Windows* 10 as the official operating system for this product, as you can confirm in the following link:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005628/mini-pcs.html

So, we cannot guarantee that the Intel® NUC will work properly with a different operating system besides Windows*10 64-bit version.

Do you have the option to use the Intel® NUC with Windows* to confirm if the problem is the same?

In reference to Wake-on-LAN not working with the Intel® NUC Kit NUC8i7BEH, please check the following link for further details on this matter:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000033202/mini-pcs.html

If the option to use Windows* is not available, then for this scenario, we recommend to get in contact directly with VMware support for further assistance on this topic:

https://www.vmware.com/support.html

Regards,

Alberto R.

Intel Customer Support Technician   

Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[jbfriedrich]

Hi Alberto,

that is very disheartening and I am sad to hear that. I do not have a Windows 10 license to test, neither is it my intent to ever run Windows on the system. The system is not under HCL per se, so VMware will with most certainty give me a similar answer as you did, on Intels behalf.

I was just under the impression that something so standard, like S3/S4/S5 states would need to work under any operating system.

Thanks and all the best,

–Jason

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Hi jbfriedrich, you are very welcome, thank you very much for your response.

Yes, as you mentioned, even though the S3/S4/S5 states are standard, they still depend on the type of operating system being used for the proper functionality and to be able to provide all of their features.

So, we still recommend to get in contact directly with the VMware support department, they might have further technical suggestions or workarounds for this scenario.

Regards,

Alberto R.