As I could not get it working, I now have an Ubuntu virtual server with the Linux Roon core installed. It works fine. However I also have a domotica server running on this Ubuntu machine and maybe in the future some other apps. The virtual machine is useful for making snapshots so I can easily revert to an earlier state so that if something goes wrong with installing apps or scripts I can revert to a working state. Amidst al these snapshots is now also the installation of Roon core. If I have to revert however before this installation I have to install Roon core again. It seems nice to have a virtual machine only with roon core installed and nothing else so that that part will always keep running and I have my music in the background whilst installing other thingsā¦ 
Thanks for the reply ! However it seems clear that ROCK is not for you. You have the skills to bugger around with VMs and ā¢ux operating systems, whereas ROCK has a completely different target audience (imo) with its appliance like behaviour.
I can see the purpose of using VM for your Roon Core (almost! 
)but not ROCK.
Maybe iām just being thick! 
Might be better off with a DietPi X86 installed on Debian AMD64 buildā¦worked fine.
Thanks for the tip. I can install Roon core on the DietPI install?
@Tom_den_Heijer yesā¦ but not on the RPi version only the X86_64 versionā¦there is a VM version too
@wizardofoz Thanks for the tip, I have now a Dietpi vm running smoothly Roon core. Installation was a bit tricky as the vm image of dietpi is for vmware workstation and I have Esxi. After following this guide: https://tech.borpin.co.uk/2018/01/30/adding-a-dietpi-vm-to-an-exsi-host/ it worked.
Reviving this old threadā¦
I am currently running Roon Core on a Windows Server 2016 VM on ESXi 6.5.
- Is anyone still running ROCK on ESXi?
- Has the the sound quality changed by getting rid of the Windows OS?
- Is anyone maintaining an OVF I could snag to try this?
Thanks!
hi henrik, i am interest your ovf ROCK . Can you paste a google disk link/dropbox share link ?
I tried to install ROCK on ESXi 6.7 by using the the description of @Marco_Kohler. I was running into the keyboard Trouble too. The assumption seems to be right ā ESXi 6.7 doesnāt support the passthrough of HID devices anymore.
As an alternative way I tried the description of @Marco_Kohler in VMWare Fusion on my iMac. Here the installation worked as described. The passthrough of HID devices works perfectly. See this link:
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1003418
After the installation I copied the created ROCK VM directly from VMWare Fusion to ESXi (I guess that this is a VMWare Fusion Profession feature only).
BTW: I also tried the OVF file from this thread. Unfortunately the contained hard drive was defined as 4 GB only (too small for my Roon database). Of Course it is possible to increase the drive size in ESXi. But ROCK doesnāt recognize that change. Due to the lack of CLI access it is not possible to enhance the files System manually.
Please, good man! Me link to ovf!
Iāve created a Roon OVA file link removed
128GB boot drive, 1TB drive for music, new network MAC address created each time a user deploys the OVA
File can be easily uploaded to an ESXi instance using the OVFTool once youāve downloaded it:
C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\OVFTool>ovftool.exe roon.ova vi://root:password@esxi_ip_address
I can create a different version with larger sized hard drives if required. Memory and CPU settings can be changed in the UI once imported into ESXi.
Enjoy 
Glad to hear itā¦ Iāve converted my NUC that has been running ROCK for months into an ESXi box and used the OVA I created on it - working exactly as I hoped, although I did use āādiskMode=thinā when I used the OVFTool to copy to the ESXi box to keep disks sizes down.
If anyone needs a larger than 1TB drive that is part of the Roon OVA I have provided, just delete the 1TB IDE drive within the ESXi environment, create an IDE drive in its place of the desired size and then access the Roon Web UI and format the new drive - quite simple if youāre familiar with ESXi.
Iām using ESXi so I can also run PiHole on the little NUC as well as Roon 
I switched back to the Windows VM. For some reason with the same resources applied, ROCK was performing slower.
I use DSP (convolution) and with some DSD tracks my processing speed was 0.9 with ROCK whereas Windows runs at 1.5. Weird as VCSA showed the ROCK VM was only using 25% of the available reservation.
With regular PCM I am seeing only 50% the processing speed of the Windows VM. I am using 4xvCPU and 8GB RAM on both machines. Both are using the same datastore which is a Samsung Pro 960.
Howdy - would you be able to share the OVA of your ESX build? Caveats noted (I am pretty good with ESX6.5 and windows but not so much linux!). Thanks in advance - Simon / Adelaide
Dear Binky
Iād love a copy of your OVA - how best to access it please?
TIA - Simon
Unfortunately, as it doesnāt download the current Roon code and install that, Iāve had discussions with Danny and decided that itās best I remove it.
I am planning to build a bootable ISO that will download and install Roon onto the first drive of a machine, but this is still in progress. I will let you know when I have it mostly working so you can test it, if you like
(No idea when I will get chance to complete it, sorry)
hello everybody, I installed the rock on Windows VMware 15 Pro, then upload the two *.vmdk files to my ESXI6.7 U3, It is working well. And I hope to help you if you have any interest in it, let me know.
Best for you.
Rolx Chen, from China.
I created a VM of OpenMediaVault in ESXi and copied the music to that and installed roon linux following the roon instructions, it worked flawlessly on that.
I moved to unraid but it was perfect under OMV on VMware.
I suggest you install ROCK(for nuc), rather than Linux roon into your ESXI, ROCK and Linux roon is different.