Install Esxi From Usb
You can format a USB flash drive to boot the ESXi installation or upgrade.
ESXi has a Scripted Install feature which allows to put all installation parameters into a Kickstart file to run unattended Installations. This post explains how to create an USB Flash Drive that does unattended ESXi installations. However, some cases due to firmware issue, limited number of ports on switch remote console license unavailability or CD ROM unavailability we will have challenges to install ESXi, in that case bootable USB with ESXi installer will help to install the hypervisor. Why create a bootable VMware ESXi USB pen drive? I really like the idea of having a bootable ESXi USB key around as it is useful for quickly spinning up an ESXi install on one of my lab machines. For this project (and also because I didn’t have any spare USB keys or sufficient capacity lying around) I went out yesterday and bought 2 x 2GB USB keys (for £9.99). I tried installing it on a USB with my Dell R710. It was one big mess, the local drives wouldn't get recognized or spit out errors, the system would boot horribly slow, the webUI was slugglish and slow as hell. Nah, i just installed ESXi on my 120GB SSD, ESXi itself doesn't use a lot of storage anyway. I am struggling to get the dell customized esxi on a bootable usb key. I tried both 6.5 and the new 6.5u1. Different boot modes bios and uefi. For transferring the iso to usb, i tried unix dd and mac etcher. Etcher complains that the image is not bootable. So how do i set the mbr so my r430 will.
These instructions assume that you are performing the procedure on a Linux machine and that the USB flash drive is detected by the operating system as /dev/sdb.
The ks file containing the installation script cannot be located on the same USB flash drive that you are using to boot the installation or upgrade.
■ | Verify that the machine opn which you are performing this procedure has access to syslinux version 3.86. This procedure requires syslinux version 3.86. |
Install Linux On Usb Drive
a | In a terminal window, run the following command. This command displays current log messages in the terminal window. |
Plug in your USB flash drive. The terminal window displays several messages identifying the USB flash drive, in a format similar to the following message. In this example, '[sdb]' identifies the USB device. If your device is identified differently, use that identification, without the brackets, in place of sdb, in this procedure. |
Create a partition table on the USB flash device.
/sbin/fdisk /dev/sdb
Type d to delete partitions until they are all deleted. | |
b | Type n to create primary partition 1 that extends over the entire disk. |
Type t to set the type to an appropriate setting for the FAT32 file system, such as c. | |
d | Type a to set the active flag on partition 1. |
Type p to print the partition table. The result should be similar to the following text: | |
f | Type w to write the partition table and quit. |
Format the USB flash drive with the Fat32 file system.
/sbin/mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n USB /dev/sdb1
Run the following commands.
Mount the USB flash drive.
mount /dev/sdb1 /usbdisk
Mount the ESXi installer ISO image.
mount -o loop VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.x.x-XXXXXX.x86_64.iso /esxi_cdrom
Copy the contents of the ISO image to /usbdisk.
cp -r /esxi_cdrom/* /usbdisk
Rename the isolinux.cfg file to syslinux.cfg.
mv /usbdisk/isolinux.cfg /usbdisk/syslinux.cfg
In the file /usbdisk/syslinux.cfg, change the line APPEND -c boot.cfg to APPEND -c boot.cfg -p 1.
Unmount the USB flash drive.
umount /usbdisk
Unmount the installer ISO image.
umount /esxi_cdrom
The USB flash drive can now boot the ESXi installer.
You can format a USB flash drive to boot the ESXi installation or upgrade.
These instructions assume that you are performing the procedure on a Linux machine and that the USB flash drive is detected by the operating system as /dev/sdb.
The ks file containing the installation script cannot be located on the same USB flash drive that you are using to boot the installation or upgrade.
■ | Verify that the machine opn which you are performing this procedure has access to syslinux version 3.86. This procedure requires syslinux version 3.86. |
a | In a terminal window, run the following command. This command displays current log messages in the terminal window. |
Plug in your USB flash drive. The terminal window displays several messages identifying the USB flash drive, in a format similar to the following message. In this example, '[sdb]' identifies the USB device. If your device is identified differently, use that identification, without the brackets, in place of sdb, in this procedure. |
Create a partition table on the USB flash device.
/sbin/fdisk /dev/sdb
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Type d to delete partitions until they are all deleted. | |
b | Type n to create primary partition 1 that extends over the entire disk. |
Type t to set the type to an appropriate setting for the FAT32 file system, such as c. | |
d | Type a to set the active flag on partition 1. |
Type p to print the partition table. The result should be similar to the following text: | |
f | Type w to write the partition table and quit. |
Format the USB flash drive with the Fat32 file system.
/sbin/mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n USB /dev/sdb1
Run the following commands.
Mount the USB flash drive.
mount /dev/sdb1 /usbdisk
Mount the ESXi installer ISO image.
mount -o loop VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.x.x-XXXXXX.x86_64.iso /esxi_cdrom
Copy the contents of the ISO image to /usbdisk.
cp -r /esxi_cdrom/* /usbdisk
Rename the isolinux.cfg file to syslinux.cfg.
mv /usbdisk/isolinux.cfg /usbdisk/syslinux.cfg
In the file /usbdisk/syslinux.cfg, change the line APPEND -c boot.cfg to APPEND -c boot.cfg -p 1.
Unmount the USB flash drive.
umount /usbdisk
Unmount the installer ISO image.
umount /esxi_cdrom
Install Esxi 6 From Usb
The USB flash drive can now boot the ESXi installer.