VMFS filesystem created by default in ESXi 5.1 and newer when using the kickstart scripted installation

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

In ESXi 5.0 and earlier versions a local VMFS filesystem was not automatically created when installing ESXi using a kickstart script. This kickstart install parameter preserves the VMFS filesystem if one was already present on a disk but it would not create a new VMFS if one did not exist or if it was a blank disk.

install --firstdisk –preservevmfs

This behavior was changed in ESXi 5.1 and later to automatically create a VMFS filesystem when installing ESXi using a kickstart script. This change was introduced to add support for stateless/stateful installations with Auto Deploy.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Resolution

To revert to the method used in 5.0 and earlier of not creating a local VMFS partition add the the parameter --novmfsondisk to the install configuration line in the kickstart (ks.cfg) script in ESXi 5.1 and newer.

Example:

install --firstdisk –preservevmfs --novmfsondisk

This will preserve a VMFS filesystem if one is already present on the disk but will not create a VMFS filesystems if one is not already present on disk.

Additional Information

Deploying ESXi 5.x using the Scripted Install feature
Understanding vSphere Auto Deploy Stateless Caching and Stateful Installs
kickstart スクリプト インストールを使用するときに、ESXi 5.1 以降ではデフォルトで VMFS ファイルシステムが作成される
使用 kickstart 脚本式安装时 ESXi 5.1 和更高版本中默认创建 VMFS 文件系统