Methods for installing ESXi 6.0
Article ID: 334435
Updated On:
Products
VMware vSphere ESXi
Issue/Introduction
This article provides high-level information that may be useful while installing VMware ESXi 6.0.
Note: This article assumes that you have read the documentation for the update you are applying. For more information, see the VMware vSphere 6.0 Release Notes and the vSphere Upgrade Guide. The documentation contains definitive information. If there is a discrepancy between the guide and this article, assume that the guide is correct.
Environment
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
Resolution
Methods of installing
VMware provides several ways to install ESXi hosts:
Interactive installations are recommended for small deployments of four or less hosts.
Installation using this method involves booting from the ESXi 6.0 installation media by inserting the media in to the host and following the prompts from the installation wizard to choose a destination disk in the host and begin the installation.
The ESXi installation media can be connected to the host in a few different ways:
- Inserting the CD/DVD in to the DVD-ROM drive in the server
- Plugging in a bootable USB device
- Mounting an ISO remotely
When instructed to begin, the installer reformats and partitions the target disk and installs the ESXi boot image. If you have not installed ESXi on the target disk previously, all data located on the drive is overwritten, including hardware vendor partitions, operating system partitions, and associated data. For more information, see the Installing ESXi Interactively section in the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.
Caution: The formatting and partitioning done by the ESXi installer is permanent and overwrites existing data. To ensure that you do not lose any data, migrate any important data from the host to another machine before you install ESXi.
If you are installing ESXi on a disk that contains an installation of ESXi/ESX or a VMFS datastore, you are presented with upgrade options. For more information, see the vSphere Upgrade Guide.
Running a script is an efficient way to deploy multiple ESXi hosts with an unattended installation.
The installation script contains the configuration data for the ESXi hosts that you want to install. You can apply the script to all hosts that you want to have a similar configuration.
Notes:
- The script must be created using supported commands.
- Ensure you consider all disks that are connected to the host at the time of installation to avoid inadvertently overwriting data. Disk names can vary from machine to machine, one of the settings that you may want to configure and double check in a script is the disk selection for the ESXi installation.
- The host installation script must be stored in a location that the host can access by FTP. HTTP, HTTPS, NFS, USB flash drive, or CD-ROM drive. The installation media can be mounted on the host locally, remotely, or through PXE boot.
For more information, see the Installing or Upgrading Hosts by Using a Script section in the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.
vSphere Auto Deploy lets you provision hundreds of physical hosts with ESXi software. Hosts boot from the network, reading from a central Auto Deploy server. Optionally, hosts are configured with a host profile created from a reference host. The host profile can be configured to prompt the user for input. Once boot up and configuration is complete, the hosts are managed by vCenter Server.
There are two different methods to install your ESXi hosts using Auto Deploy.
- Stateless caching
Stateless caching is the default option when using Auto Deploy. ESXi configuration and state data is not stored on the host disk, instead a base image profile defines the image that the host is provisioned with, other host attributes and configuration data are applied to the host through host profiles. A host that is set up for stateless caching must connect to the Auto Deploy server (boot media) and the vCenter Server (host profile) every time it boots. Once the ESXi host is running, the installation runs from memory. - Stateful installations
In a stateful install, the host installation image is copied from the Auto Deploy server and stored to disk (local or remote) that is only accessible to that ESXi host. Subsequent boots are from disk.
For more information about installing ESXi using Auto Deploy, see the Installing ESXi Using vSphere Auto Deploy section in the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.
You can use ESXi Image Builder CLI to create ESXi installation images with a customized set of updates, patches, and drivers. You can also include third-party network or storage drivers that are released between vSphere releases.
The vSphere ESXi Image Builder snap-in is included with vSphere PowerCLI installations. A Microsoft Windows system is required to install the Image Builder and its prerequisite software.
You can deploy an ESXi image created with Image Builder in one of these ways:
- Burning it to an installation DVD
- Through vCenter Server, using the Auto Deploy feature
For more information about creating custom ESXi images, see the Using vSphere ESXi Image Builder section in the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.
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