VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 8.0 VMware vSphere 8.0 VMware ESXi 8.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at: https://docs.vmware.com/ VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com Copyright VMware, Inc. © 2018-2022 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information.
Contents 1 About VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 5 2 Introduction to vSphere Installation and Setup 6 Overview of the vSphere Installation and Setup Process About ESXi Evaluation and Licensed Modes 6 8 3 Introducing VMware vSphere Distributed Services Engine and Networking Acceleration by Using DPUs 9 4 Installing and Setting Up ESXi 12 ESXi Requirements 12 ESXi System Storage Overview ESXi Hardware Requirements 12 17 Using Remote Management Applications 20 Recommendations for Enhanced ESXi P
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Enable ESXi Shell and SSH Access with the Direct Console User Interface Set the Password for the Administrator Account Configuring the BIOS Boot Settings Configuring Network Settings 225 225 227 Test the Management Network 231 Restart the Management Agents 232 Restart the Management Network 232 Test Connectivity to Devices and Networks Restoring the Standard Switch Configuring System Logging 224 233 233 233 Set the Host Image Profile Acceptance Level Remove
About VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 1 VMware ESXi Installation and Setup describes how to install and configure VMware ESXi™. At VMware, we value inclusion. To foster this principle within our customer, partner, and internal community, we have updated this guide to remove instances of non-inclusive language. Intended Audience VMware ESXi Installation and Setup is intended for experienced administrators who want to install and configure ESXi.
Introduction to vSphere Installation and Setup 2 vSphere 8.0 provides various options for installation and setup. To ensure a successful vSphere deployment, you should understand the installation and setup options, and the sequence of tasks. The two core components of vSphere are ESXi and vCenter Server. ESXi is the virtualization platform on which you can create and run virtual machines and virtual appliances.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Figure 2-1. vSphere Installation and Setup Workflow Start the vSphere installation and setup Install ESXi on at least one host Set up ESXi Deploy vCenter Server Appliance Log in to the vSphere Client to create and organize your vCenter Server inventory End of the vSphere installation and setup 1 Read the vSphere release notes. 2 Install ESXi. a Verify that your system meets the minimum hardware requirements. See ESXi Requirements.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup e Install ESXi. n Installing ESXi Interactively n Installing ESXi by Using a Script Note You can also provision ESXi hosts by using vSphere Auto Deploy, but vSphere Auto Deploy is installed together with vCenter Server. To provision ESXi hosts by using Auto Deploy, you must install vCenter Server. 3 Configure the ESXi boot and network settings, the direct console, and other settings. See Setting Up ESXi and After You Install and Set Up ESXi.
Introducing VMware vSphere Distributed Services Engine and Networking Acceleration by Using DPUs 3 vSphere 8.0 enables breakthrough workload performance to meet the throughput and latency needs of modern distributed workloads by accelerating networking functions on data processing units (DPUs). With vSphere Distributed Services Engine, infrastructure services are distributed across the different compute resources available on the ESXi host, with networking functions offloaded to the DPU.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Figure 3-1. Starting with vSphere 8.0, VMware moves functionality that runs on the core CPU complex to the DPU CPU complex: vSphere Distributed Services Engine offloads and accelerates infrastructure functions on the DPU by introducing a VMware vSphere Distributed Switch on the DPU and VMware NSX Networking and Observability, which allows to proactively monitor, identify, and mitigate network infrastructure bottlenecks without complex network taps.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup vSphere Distributed Services Engine does not require a separate ESXi license. An internal network that is isolated from other networks, connects the DPUs with ESXi hosts. ESXi 8.0 server builds are unified images, which contain both x86 and DPU content. In your vSphere system, you see DPUs as new objects during installation and upgrade, and in networking, storage, and host profile workflows. VMware, Inc.
Installing and Setting Up ESXi 4 You can install and set up ESXi on your physical hardware so that it acts as a platform for virtual machines. This chapter includes the following topics: n ESXi Requirements n Preparing for Installing ESXi n Customizing Installations with vSphere ESXi Image Builder n Installing ESXi n Setting Up ESXi n After You Install and Set Up ESXi ESXi Requirements To install or upgrade ESXi, your system must meet specific hardware and software requirements.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-1. ESXi system storage partitions: (continued) Partition Use Type Boot-bank 1 System space to store ESXi boot modules. FAT16 ESX-OSData Acts as the unified location to store additional modules. VMFS-L Not used for booting and virtual machines. Consolidates the legacy /scratch partition, locker partition for VMware Tools, and core dump destinations.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup You can review the boot media capacity and the automatic sizing as configured by the ESXi installer by using the vSphere Client and navigating to the Partition Details view. Alternatively, you can use ESXCLI, for example the esxcli storage filesystem list command. Table 4-2. ESXi System Storage Sizes, Depending on the Used Boot Media and Its Capacity.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-3. ESXi system storage symbolic links. (continued) System Storage Volume Symbolic Link Persistent data /productLocker /locker /var/core /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages /usr/lib/vmware/floppies Non-persistent data /var/run /var/log /var/vmware /var/tmp /scratch Storage Behavior When you start ESXi, the host enters an autoconfiguration phase during which system storage devices are configured with defaults.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup You might want to override this default behavior if, for example, you use shared storage devices instead of local storage. To prevent automatic disk formatting, detach the local storage devices from the host under the following circumstances: n Before you start the host for the first time. n Before you start the host after you reset the host to the configuration defaults.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 5 Select Advanced System Settings. The setting ScratchConfig.CurrentScratchLocation shows the current location of the scratch partition. 6 In the ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation text box, enter a directory path that is unique for this host. For example, /vmfs/volumes/DatastoreUUID/DatastoreFolder. 7 Reboot the host for the changes to take effect. ESXi Hardware Requirements Make sure that the host meets the minimum hardware configurations supported by ESXi 8.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Storage Systems For a list of supported storage systems, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at http:// www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility. Starting with ESXi 8.0, you cannot use software adapters for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), only hardware FCoE adapters. ESXi Booting Requirements In vSphere 8.0, support for legacy BIOS is limited and booting ESXi hosts from the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is recommended.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup separate persistent local device with a minimum of 32 GB to store the ESX-OSData volume. The persistent local boot device can be an industrial grade M.2 flash (SLC and MLC), SAS, SATA, HDD, SSD, or a NVMe device. The optimal capacity for persistent local devices is 128 GB. n If you do not provide persistent storage, you see an alarm such as Secondary persistent device not found.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup To configure the size of ESXi system partitions, you can use the systemMediaSize option. For more information, see Knowledge Base article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/81166. In Auto Deploy installations, the installer attempts to allocate a scratch region on an available local disk or datastore. If no local disk or datastore is found, installation fails.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Recommendations for Enhanced ESXi Performance To enhance performance, install or upgrade ESXi on a robust system with more RAM than the minimum required and with multiple physical disks. For ESXi system requirements, see ESXi Hardware Requirements. Table 4-5. Recommendations for Enhanced Performance System Element Recommendation RAM ESXi hosts require more RAM than typical servers. ESXi 8.0 requires a minimum of 8 GB of physical RAM.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-5. Recommendations for Enhanced Performance (continued) System Element Recommendation Processors Faster processors improve ESXi performance. For certain workloads, larger caches improve ESXi performance. Hardware compatibility Use devices in your server that are supported by ESXi drivers. See the Hardware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-6. Recommended Minimum Size and Rotation Configuration for hostd, vpxa, and fdm Logs Log Maximum Log File Size Number of Log Files to Preserve Minimum Disk Space Required Management Agent (hostd) 10 MB 10 100 MB VirtualCenter Agent (vpxa) 5 MB 10 50 MB vSphere HA agent (Fault Domain Manager, fdm) 5 MB 10 50 MB For information about setting up a remote log server, see Configure Syslog on ESXi Hosts.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup ESXi Passwords ESXi enforces password requirements for access from the Direct Console User Interface, the ESXi Shell, SSH, or the VMware Host Client. n By default, you must include a mix of at least three from the following four character classes: lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters such as underscore or dash when you create a password. n By default, password length is at least 7 characters and less than 40.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup For example, you can change the option to the following. retry=3 min=disabled,disabled,16,7,7 This example allows pass phrases of at least 16 characters and at least three words. For legacy hosts, changing the /etc/pam.d/passwd file is still supported, but changing the file is deprecated for future releases. Use the Security.PasswordQualityControl advanced system setting instead.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Security.PasswordHistory. Number of passwords to remember for each user. Zero deactivates password history. See the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation for information on setting ESXi advanced options. Preparing for Installing ESXi Before you install ESXi, determine the installation option that is suitable for your environment and prepare for the installation process. Download the ESXi Installer Download the installer for ESXi.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup For future use, note the values you use during the installation. These notes are useful if you must reinstall ESXi and reenter the values that you originally selected. Table 4-7. Required Information for ESXi Installation Information Required or Optional Default Keyboard layout Required U.S.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Boot from a remote location using a remote management application. See Using Remote Management Applications Download and Burn the ESXi Installer ISO Image to a CD or DVD If you do not have an ESXi installation CD/DVD, you can create one. You can also create an installer ISO image that includes a custom installation script. See Create an Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script. Procedure 1 Follow the procedure Download the ESXi Installer.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 If your USB flash drive is not detected as /dev/sdb, or you are not sure how your USB flash drive is detected, determine how it is detected. a Plug in your USB flash drive. b At the command line, run the command for displaying the current log messages. tail -f /var/log/messages You see several messages that identify the USB flash drive in a format similar to the following message. Oct 25 13:25:23 ubuntu kernel: [ removable disk 712.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 Attach the USB flash drive to a Linux machine that has access to the installation or upgrade script. 2 Create a partition table. /sbin/fdisk /dev/sdb a Type d to delete partitions until they are all deleted. b Type n to create primary partition 1 that extends over the entire disk. c Type t to set the type to an appropriate setting for the FAT32 file system, such as c. d Type p to print the partition table.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Create an Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script You can customize the standard ESXi installer ISO image with your own installation or upgrade script. This customization enables you to perform a scripted, unattended installation or upgrade when you boot the resulting installer ISO image. See also Installing ESXi by Using a Script and About the boot.cfg File . Prerequisites n Linux machine n The ESXi ISO image VMware-VMvisor-Installer-x.x.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 6 Recreate the ISO image using the mkisofs or the genisoimage command. Command Syntax mkisofs mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -J -R -o custom_esxi.iso -b ISOLINUX.BIN -c BOOT.CAT -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -eltorito-alt-boot -eltorito-platform efi -b EFIBOOT.IMG -no-emul-boot /esxi_cdrom genisoimage genisoimage -relaxed-filenames -J -R -o custom_esxi.iso -b ISOLINUX.BIN -c BOOT.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Figure 4-2. Image Builder Architecture Depot VIB VIB Image Profile 1 Image Builder PowerCLI Image Profile 2 User-Created Image Profile ISO vSphere Lifecycle Manager ZIP esxcli Windows Client vSphere Auto Deploy You use vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets for managing the software to deploy to your ESXi hosts in several different situations. Table 4-8.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-9. Input and Output to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder Cmdlets Parameter Description Input Image profiles and VIBs that are located in a software depot are used as input to PowerCLI cmdlets running on a Windows client. Output PowerCLI cmdlets create custom image profiles that can be exported to an ISO image or an offline depot ZIP file. ISO images are used for installation.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Two VIBs with the same name, but two different versions, cannot coexist. When you add a new version of a VIB, the new version replaces the existing version of the VIB. n No acceptance level validation issues exist. When you make a change to an image profile, vSphere ESXi Image Builder checks that the change does not invalidate the profile. Dependency Validation When you add or remove a VIB, vSphere ESXi Image Builder checks that package dependencies are met.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup The host acceptance level determines which VIBs you can install on a host. You can change a host's acceptance level with ESXCLI commands. By default, ESXi hosts have an acceptance level of PartnerSupported to allow for easy updates with PartnerSupported VIBs. Note VMware supports hosts at the PartnerSupported acceptance level. For problems with individual VIBs with PartnerSupported acceptance level, contact your partner's support organization.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup for a new or nonmainstream technology that partners want to enable for VMware systems. Today, driver VIB technologies such as Infiniband, ATAoE, and SSD are at this level with nonstandard hardware drivers. VMware directs customers with support calls for VIBs with this acceptance level to contact the partner's support organization. CommunitySupported The CommunitySupported acceptance level is for VIBs created by individuals or companies outside of VMware partner programs.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 View the host acceptance level. esxcli --server=server_name software acceptance get 3 Change the acceptance level of the host. esxcli --server=server_name software acceptance set --level=acceptance_level The value for acceptance_level can be VMwareCertified, VMwareAccepted, PartnerSupported, or CommunitySupported. The values for acceptance_level are case-sensitive.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 Get the acceptance level for the image profile. Get-EsxImageProfile -Name string 3 Set the acceptance level of the image profile. Set-EsxImageProfile -Name string -AcceptanceLevel level Structure of ImageProfile, SoftwarePackage, and ImageProfileDiff Objects Knowing the structure of ImageProfile, SoftwarePackage, and ImageProfileDiff objects helps you manage deployment and upgrade processes.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Name Type Description Vendor System.String The organization that publishes the profile. 40 characters or fewer. VibList SoftwarePackage[] The list of VIB IDs the image contains. SoftwarePackage Object Properties When preparing an image profile, you can examine software packages to decide which packages are suitable for inclusion. The SoftwarePackage object has the following properties.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Name Type Description Replaces SoftwareConstraint[] The list of SoftwareConstraint objects that identify VIBs that replace this VIB or make it obsolete. VIBs automatically replace VIBs with the same name but lower versions. ReleaseDate System.DateTime Date and time of VIB publication or release. SourceUrls System.String[] The list of source URLs from which this VIB can be downloaded. StatelessReady System.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Name Type Description OnlyInComp System.String The list of VIBs found only in the second profile that you passed to Compare-EsxImageProfile. OnlyInRef System.String[] The list of VIBs found only in the first profile that you passed to CompareEsxImageProfile. PackagesEqual System.Boolean True if the image profiles have identical sets of VIB packages. RefAcceptanceLevel System.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Name Type Description Name System.String The name of the constraint. This name should match a corresponding SoftwareProvide Name property. Relation System.String An enum, or one of the following comparison indicators: <<, <=, = >=, >>. This property can be $null if the constraint does not have a Relation and Version property. Version System.String VersionObject SoftwareVersion The version to match the constraint against.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 Download a version of PowerCLI later than PowerCLI 6.5R1 from the PowerCLI home page. 3 To install all PowerCLI modules, run the command: Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser. Alternatively, you can install individual PowerCLI modules by running the Install-Module cmdlet with the module name.If you see a warning that you are installing modules from an untrusted repository, press y and then press Enter to confirm the installation.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Create an Image Profile. n Prepare Your System for vSphere Auto Deploy. n You can change the default configuration properties of the Image Builder Service. For more information, see "Configuring vCenter Server" in the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation. Using VMware.Image Builder Cmdlets VMware.Image Builder cmdlets are implemented as Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets and included in PowerCLI. Users of VMware.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Most of the examples in the vCenter Server Installation and Setup documentation pass in parameters by name. vSphere ESXi Image Builder Workflows with PowerCLI Cmdlets includes examples that pass parameters as objects. VMware.ImageBuilder Cmdlets Overview The VMware.Image Builder component of VMware PowerCLI provides cmdlets for managing VIBs, image profiles, and other content in software depots. vSphere 7.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-10. VMware.ImageBuilder Cmdlets Used with Legacy Content in Software Depots (continued) Cmdlet Description RemoveEsxSoftwarePackage Removes one or more packages (VIBs) from an image profile. SetESXImageProfileAssoc iation Associates the specified image profile with the specified ESXi system. Table 4-11. VMware.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 Navigate to Home > Auto Deploy. By default, only the administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service. 2 On the Software Depots tab, click New. The Add Software Depot window appears. 3 Select the type of depot that you want to create. Option Action Online Depot a Enter a name of the depot in the inventory. b Enter the URL of the online depot. Custom Depot Enter the name of the depot in the inventory.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites Verify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the vSphere ESXi Image Builder. Procedure 1 Navigate to Home > Auto Deploy. By default, only the administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service. 2 On the Software Depots tab, click Import . 3 Enter the name of the software depot in the inventory.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 3 From the list of image profiles in the depot, select the image profile that you want to clone and click Clone. 4 Enter an image profile name, vendor, and description. You must enter a unique image profile name. 5 From the Software depot drop-down menu, select in which custom depot to add the new image profile. 6 Click Next. The Select software packages page appears. 7 From the drop-down menu, select an acceptance level for the image profile.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites n Install the PowerCLI and all prerequisite software. See Install Prerequisite Software and Configure vSphere ESXi Image Builder . n Verify that you have access to the software depot that contains the image profile you want to clone. Procedure 1 In a PowerCLI session, run the Add-EsxSoftwareDepot cmdlet for each depot you want to work with. Option Action Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl .
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Add or import a software depot to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. See Add a Software Depot and Import a Software Depot. n Verify that there is at least one custom depot in the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. Procedure 1 Navigate to Home > Auto Deploy. By default, only the administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Select and Delete an Image profile. n View Software Packages for the selected image profile. Create a Custom ESXi ISO Image with PowerCLI Cmdlets With ESXi Image Builder, you can customize an ESXi image profile, but not combine content from different depots to generate an ISO image. Starting with VMware PowerCLI 12.0, you can customize ISO images by using content from multiple software depots and a custom software specification.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup -------------------------testaddonv1 1.0.0-1 QE 02/20/20xx 18:28:23 -testaddonv1:1.0.0-1 ESXLifecycle You can also list all components in a sofware depot with the Get-DepotComponents cmdlet: PS C:\> Get-DepotComponents -Depot C:\Intel-i40en_1.12.3.0-1OEM.xxxxxxx.zip The command output is: Name ID ----Intel-i40en i40en:1.12.3.0-1OEM.xxxxxxx Version Vendor -----------1.12.3.0-1OEM.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup What to do next You can import the new ISO image to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager depot, so that you can create upgrade baselines, which you use for host upgrade operations. Create a Custom PXE Image with PowerCLI Cmdlets Starting with VMware PowerCLI 12.0, you can create a custom PXE image by using any software depot and a custom software specification. Prerequisites Install VMware PowerCLI 12.0 or later.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup You can also list all components in a sofware depot with the Get-DepotComponents cmdlet: PS C:\> Get-DepotComponents -Depot C:\Inteli40en_1.12.3.0-1OEM.700.1.0.15843807_18058526.zip The command output is: Name ID ----Intel-i40en Intel Version Vendor -----------1.12.3.0-1OEM.xxxxx Intel-i40en:1.12.3.0-1OEM.xxxxx You can use any number and combination of online and offline software depots. 2 Create a software specification. For example: { "base_image": { "version": "8.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Edit an Image Profile You can edit image profiles by using the vSphere Client. You can change the name, details and VIB list of an image profile. Prerequisites n Verify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the vSphere ESXi Image Builder. n Add or import a software depot to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. See Add a Software Depot and Import a Software Depot.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup What to do next n You can associate an image profile with a new vSphere Auto Deploy rule to provision ESXi hosts. See Create a Deploy Rule or Clone a Deploy Rule. n You can associate an image profile with an ESXi host. See Add a Host to the vSphere Auto Deploy Inventory. n Edit the Image Profile Association of a Host. Add VIBs to an Image Profile with PowerCLI Cmdlets You can add one or more VIBs to an image profile if that image profile is not set to read only.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 In a PowerCLI session, run the Add-EsxSoftwareDepot cmdlet for each depot you want to work with. Option Action Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl . ZIP file a Download the ZIP file to a local file system. b Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\\.zip The cmdlet returns one or more SoftwareDepot objects. 2 Run the Get-EsxImageProfile cmdlet to list all image profiles in all currently visible depots.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 Navigate to Home > Auto Deploy. By default, only the administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service. 2 On the Software Depots tab, use the drop-down menu to select the software depot that contains the image profile that you want to work with. 3 On the Image Profiles tab, select an image profile and click Compare To. The Compare Image Profile wizard appears. 4 Click Change to select a second image profile.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 (Optional) Run the Get-EsxImageProfile cmdlet to view a list of all image profiles in all available depots. In the list, you can locate the names of the image profiles you want to compare. 3 Before comparing the image profiles, assign them to variables. For example, you can create variables $imageProfile1 and $imageProfile2 to hold the names of the compared images profiles.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Verify that there is at least one custom depot in the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. Procedure 1 Navigate to Home > Auto Deploy. By default, only the administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service. 2 On the Software Depots tab, use the drop-down menu to select the software depot that contains the image profile that you want to work with. 3 On the Image Profiles tab, select an image profile and click Move to.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 4 Select the type of the exported file. Option Description ISO Exports the image profile to a bootable ISO image. If you want to create an ISO image that you can burn to a CD or DVD and use to start a stateless ESXi instance, select the Do not include an installer on the ISO check box. ZIP Exports the image profile to a ZIP file. 5 (Optional) If you want to bypass the acceptance level verification of the image profile, select Skip acceptance level checking.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 Run Export-EsxImageProfile to export the image profile. Export Format Cmdlet ISO images Export-EsxImageProfile with the -ExportToIso parameter Offline depot ZIP files Export-EsxImageProfile with the -ExportToBundle parameter Results For the ISO image, vSphere ESXi Image Builder validates VIB signatures, adds VIB binaries to the image, and downloads the image to the specified location.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Download the ZIP file to an ESXi host or a datastore and run esxcli software vib commands to import the VIBs in the ZIP file. See the vSphere Upgrade documentation. Regenerate an Image Profile If you use Auto Deploy to add stateful ESXi hosts to a cluster that you managed by using an image, you must ensure that all hosts have the same software specification.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Preserve Image Profiles Across Sessions with PowerCLI Cmdlets When you create an image profile and exit the PowerCLI session, the image profile is no longer available when you start a new session. You can export the image profile to a ZIP file software depot, and add that depot in the next session. Prerequisites Install the PowerCLI and all prerequisite software. See Install Prerequisite Software and Configure vSphere ESXi Image Builder .
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 (Optional) Run the Get-EsxSoftwarePackage cmdlet to view all available VIBs. In the list, you can locate the names of the VIBs you want to compare. 3 Before comparing the VIBs, assign them to variables. For example, you can create variables $vib1 and $vib2 to hold the names of the compared VIBs.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 In a PowerCLI session, run the Add-EsxSoftwareDepot cmdlet for each depot you want to work with. Option Action Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl . ZIP file a Download the ZIP file to a local file system. b Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\\.zip The cmdlet returns one or more SoftwareDepot objects. 2 Retrieve image profiles. You can filter by vendor, name, and acceptance level.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Returns detailed information about each software package by using a pipeline to link the output of the request for software packages to the PowerShell format-list cmdlet. 5 View the list of VIBs in the image profile. (Get-EsxImageProfile -Name "Robin's Profile").VibList VibList is a property of the ImageProfile object. 6 Retrieve software packages released before or after a certain date by using the CreatedBefore or CreatedAfter parameter.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 In a PowerShell window, check whether any software depots are defined for the current session. $DefaultSoftwareDepots PowerShell returns the currently defined depots, or nothing if you just started PowerShell. 2 If the depot containing the profile that you want to clone does not appear in the results, add it to the current session. Option Action Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl depot_url.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup $profs $ip = New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile $profs[2] -Name "new_profile_name" -Vendor "my_vendor" $ip Create New Image Profiles Workflow In most situations, you create an image profile by cloning an existing profile. Some VMware customers or partners might need to create a new image profile. Pay careful attention to dependencies and acceptance levels if you create an image profile from scratch.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup The example uses the esx-base package. In most cases, you include the esx-base package when you create a new image profile. Names that contain spaces are surrounded by quotes. 4 Use a pipeline to pass the new image profile to format-list for detailed information about the new package. (Get-EsxImageProfile -Name "Test #2").
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 Use a pipeline to pass the image profile you intend to edit to format-list to see detailed information. In this example, the image profile created in Create New Image Profiles Workflow contains only the base image. A newly created image profile is not included in the depot. Instead, you access the image profile by name or by binding it to a variable. Get-EsxImageProfile "Test #2" | format-list PowerShell returns the information. Name Vendor ...
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup The VIB list is updated to include the new software package and the information is displayed. Name Vendor ... VibList : Test #2 : Vendor42 : {esx-base 5.0.0.-..., NewPack3} Example: Editing Image Profiles by Using Variables This cmdlet sequence repeats the steps of the workflow but passes parameters as objects, accessed by position in a variable, instead of passing parameters by name. You can run the following cmdlets in sequence from the PowerCLI prompt.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Install ESXi Interactively You use the ESXi CD/DVD or a USB flash drive to install the ESXi software onto a SAS, SATA, SCSI hard drive, or USB drive. Prerequisites n You must have the ESXi installer ISO in one of the following locations: n On CD or DVD. If you do not have the installation CD/DVD, you can create one. See Download and Burn the ESXi Installer ISO Image to a CD or DVD n On a USB flash drive.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 3 If your system has supported DPUs, select the DPU on which you want to install ESXi and press Enter. In the DPU Details screen, you see all properties of the DPU device. With vSphere 8.0, if your system has supported DPUs, always consider the installation, reinstallation or upgrade of ESXi on the DPUs in a lockstep with ESXi on hosts. 4 On the Select a Disk to Install or Upgrade ESXi page, select the drive on which to install ESXi, and press Enter.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 9 Press Enter to reboot the host. 10 Set the first boot device to be the drive on which you installed ESXi in Step 4. For information about changing boot order, see your hardware vendor documentation. Note UEFI systems might require additional steps to set the boot device. See Host Fails to Boot After You Install ESXi in UEFI Mode Results After the installation is complete, you can migrate existing VMFS data to the ESXi host.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 On the Select a Disk screen, select the iSCSI target you specified in the iBFT BIOS target parameter setting. If the target does not appear in this menu, make sure that the TCP/IP and initiator iSCSI IQN settings are correct. Check the network Access Control List (ACL) and confirm that the adapter has adequate permissions to access the target. 3 Follow the prompts to complete the installation. 4 Reboot the host.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Figure 4-3. Scripted Installation Scripted HTTP HTTPS FTP NFS CDROM USB Create installation script (kickstart file) and copy to appropriate location. PXE boot Boot from CD Start installation Boot from USB Issues command to specify location of installation script and start installation. Approaches for Scripted Installation You can install ESXi on multiple machines using a single script for all of them or a separate script for each machine.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 Start the host. 2 When the ESXi installer window appears, press Shift+O to edit boot options. 3 At the runweasel command prompt, type ks=location of installation script plus boot command-line options. Example: Boot Option You type the following boot options: ks=http://00.00.00.00/kickstart/ks-osdc-pdp101.cfg nameserver=00.00.0.0 ip=00.00.00.000 netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=00.00.00.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-13. Boot Options for ESXi Installation (continued) Boot Option Description ks=cdrom:/path Performs a scripted installation with the script at path, which resides on the CD in the CD-ROM drive. Each CDROM is mounted and checked until the file that matches the path is found.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-13. Boot Options for ESXi Installation (continued) Boot Option Description vlanid=vlanid Configure the network card to be on the specified VLAN. systemMediaSize=small Limits the size of system storage partitions on the boot media. The selected value must fit the purpose of your system.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup # Set the root password for the DCUI and Tech Support Mode rootpw myp@ssw0rd # Install on the first local disk available on machine install --firstdisk --overwritevmfs In case you system has DPUs, you also specify a PCI slot: install --firstdisk --overwritevmfs --dpuPciSlots= # Set the network to DHCP on the first network adapter network --bootproto=dhcp --device=vmnic0 # A sample post-install script %post --interpreter=python --ignorefailure=true import time
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-14. Commands in boot.cfg. (continued) Command Description kernelopt=STRING Appends STRING to the kernel boot options. modules=FILEPATH1 --- FILEPATH2... --- FILEPATHn Lists the modules to be loaded, separated by three hyphens (---). See Create an Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script and Network Booting the ESXi Installer.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup With vSphere 8.0, if your system has supported data processing units (DPU), always consider the installation, re-installation or upgrade of ESXi on the DPUs along with ESXi on hosts. However, ESXi update and upgrade on DPUs is not supported by the interactive or scripted method, you can only use vSphere Lifecycle Manager. Note The use of SD and USB devices for storing ESX-OSData partitions is being deprecated.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup any disk that uses the mptsas driver rather than a normal local disk, the argument is --firstdisk=ST3120814A,mptsas,local. You can use localesx for local storage that contains ESXi image or remoteesx for remote storage that contains ESXi image. dryrun (Optional) Parses and checks the installation script. Does not perform the installation. install Specifies that this is a fresh installation.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Storage documentation for more information about preventing SSD formatting during auto-partitioning. --overwritevsan You must use the --overwritevsan option when you install ESXi on a disk, either SSD or HDD (magnetic), that is in a vSAN disk group. If you use this option and no vSAN partition is on the selected disk, the installation fails.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup installorupgrade Either the install, upgrade, or installorupgrade command is required to determine which disk to install or upgrade ESXi on. --disk= or --drive= Specifies the disk to partition. In the command --disk=diskname, the diskname can be a disk name or a full disk filesystem path in ESXi, for example: n Disk name: --disk=naa.6d09466044143600247aee55ca2a6405 or n Device path: --disk=/vmfs/devices/disks/mpx.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup For more information about managing vSAN disk groups, see the vSphere Storage documentation. --overwritevmfs Install ESXi if a VMFS partition exists on the disk, but no ESX or ESXi installation exists. Unless this option is present, the installer fails if a VMFS partition exists on the disk, but an ESX or ESXi installation is missing. keyboard (Optional) Sets the keyboard type for the system. keyboardType VMware, Inc.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Swiss German n Turkish n Ukrainian n United Kingdom n US Default n US Dvorak serialnum or vmserialnum (Optional) The command is supported in ESXi version 5.1 and later. Configures licensing. If not included, ESXi installs in evaluation mode. --esx= Specifies the vSphere license key to use. The format is 5 five-character groups (XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX). network (Optional) Specifies a network address for the system.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup --vlanid= vlanid Specifies which VLAN the system is on. Used with either the --bootproto=dhcp or --bootproto=static option. Set to an integer from 1 to 4096. --addvmportgroup=(0|1) Specifies whether to add the VM Network port group, which is used by virtual machines. The default value is 1. paranoid (Optional) Causes warning messages to interrupt the installation. If you omit this command, warning messages are logged.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup rootpw (Required) Sets the root password for the system. --iscrypted Specifies that the password is encrypted. password Specifies the password value. upgrade Either the install, upgrade, or installorupgrade command is required to determine which disk to install or upgrade ESXi on. --disk= or --drive= Specifies the disk to partition.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup %pre (Optional) Specifies a script to run before the kickstart configuration is evaluated. For example, you can use it to generate files for the kickstart file to include. --interpreter Specifies an interpreter to use. The default is busybox. =[python|busybox] %post (Optional) Runs the specified script after package installation is complete. If you specify multiple %post sections, they run in the order that they appear in the installation script.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-15. Disk Device Names Format Example Description NAA naa.6d09466044143600247aee55ca2a6405 SCSI INQUIRY identifier EUI eui.3966623838646463 SCSI INQUIRY identifier T10 t10.SanDisk00Cruzer_Blade000000004C5300 01171118101244 SCSI INQUIRY identifier VML vml.00025261 Legacy VMkernel identifier MPX mpx.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 When the ESXi installer window appears, press Shift+O to edit boot options. 3 Type a boot option that calls the default installation or upgrade script or an installation or upgrade script file that you created. The boot option has the form ks=. 4 Press Enter. Results The installation, upgrade, or migration runs, using the options that you specified.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 When the ESXi installer window appears, press Shift+O to edit boot options. 3 Type a boot option that calls the default installation or upgrade script or an installation or upgrade script file that you created. The boot option has the form ks=. 4 Press Enter. Results The installation, upgrade, or migration runs, using the options that you specified. Performing a Scripted Installation or Upgrade of ESXi by Network Booting the Installer ESXi 8.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Network Booting the ESXi Installer You can use preboot execution environment (PXE) to boot an ESXi host from a network device, if your host uses legacy BIOS or UEFI. Alternatively, if your ESXi host supports native UEFI HTTP, you can use hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) to boot the host from a network device. ESXi is distributed in an ISO format that is used to install to flash memory or to a local hard drive.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Figure 4-4. Overview of PXE Boot Installation Process ESXi target host UDP DHCP server IP & TFTP server TCP or UDP TFTP or HTTP server Give me the kernel kernel UDP DHCP server Give me the network boot loader mboot and supporting files TCP or UDP TFTP or HTTP server Give me an IP for the network adapter Give me the IP for the kernel IP TCP Give me an installation script ks.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Network Boot Background Information Understanding the network boot process can help you during troubleshooting. TFTP Server Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is similar to the FTP service, and is typically used only for network booting systems or loading firmware on network devices such as routers. TFTP is available on Linux and Windows. n Most Linux distributions include a copy of the tftp-hpa server.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Some UEFI firmware support native UEFI HTTP boot. The feature is introduced in version 2.5 of the UEFI specification. The firmware can load the ESXi boot loader from an HTTP server, without additional software, such as iPXE. Note Apple Macintosh products do not include PXE boot support. They include support for network booting through an Apple-specific protocol instead.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup File Location for the PXE Configuration File Save the file in /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ on the TFTP server. For example, you might save the file on the TFTP server at /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ 01-00-21-5a-ce-40-f6. The MAC address of the network adapter on the target ESXi host is 00-21-5a-ce-40-f6. Boot the ESXi Installer by Using PXE and TFTP You can use a TFTP server to PXE boot the ESXi installer.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 If your ESXi host runs legacy BIOS firmware only, obtain and configure PXELINUX. a Obtain SYSLINUX version 3.86, unpack it, and copy the pxelinux.0 file to the top-level / tftpboot directory on your TFTP server. b Create a PXELINUX configuration file using the following code model. ESXi-8.x.x-XXXXXX is the name of the TFTP subdirectory that contains the ESXi installer files. DEFAULT install NOHALT 1 LABEL install KERNEL ESXi-8.x.x-XXXXXX/mboot.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 6 Modify the boot.cfg file a Add the following line: prefix=ESXi-8.x.x-xxxxxx Here, ESXi-8.x.x-xxxxxx is the pathname of the installer files relative to the TFTP server's root directory. b If the filenames in the kernel= and modules= lines begin with a forward slash (/) character, delete that character. c 7 If the kernelopt= line contains the string cdromBoot, remove the string only. (Optional) For a scripted installation, in the boot.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites Verify that your environment has the following components: n ESXi installer ISO image, downloaded from the VMware Web site. n Target host with a hardware configuration that is supported for your version of ESXi. See the VMware Compatibility Guide. n Network adapter with PXE support on the target ESXi host. n DHCP server that you can configure for PXE booting. See Sample DHCP Configurations. n TFTP server.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 If your ESXi host runs legacy BIOS firmware only, obtain and configure PXELINUX. a Obtain SYSLINUX version 3.86, unpack it, and copy the pxelinux.0 file to the /tftpboot directory on your TFTP server. b Create a PXELINUX configuration file using the following code model. ESXi-8.x.x-XXXXXX is the name of the TFTP subdirectory that contains the ESXi installer files. DEFAULT install NOHALT 1 LABEL install KERNEL ESXi-8.x.x-XXXXXX/mboot.c32 APPEND -c ESXi-8.x.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 7 Modify the boot.cfg file a Add the following line: prefix=http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/ESXi-8.x.x-XXXXXX where http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/ESXi-8.x.x-XXXXXX is the location of the installer files on the HTTP server. b If the filenames in the kernel= and modules= lines begin with a forward slash (/) character, delete that character. c 8 If the kernelopt= line contains the string cdromBoot, remove the string only. (Optional) For a scripted installation, in the boot.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites Verify that your environment has the following components: n ESXi host with UEFI firmware that supports the HTTP boot feature. n ESXi installer ISO image, downloaded from the VMware Web site. n Target host with a hardware configuration that is supported for your version of ESXi. See the VMware Compatibility Guide. n Network adapter with UEFI networking support on the target ESXi host. n DHCP server that you can configure for UEFI HTTP booting.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup (Optional) You can use the virtual machine configuration parameters networkBootProtocol and networkBootUri to specify from where a virtual machines can boot. The setting networkBootProtocol specifies the boot protocol, IPv4 or IPv6. For example, networkBootProtocol = httpv4. The setting networkBootUri specifies the HTTP URL to 7 the ESXi bootloader (bootx64.efi). For example, networkBootUri = http://xxx.xxx.xx.x/ esxi80uc1/efi/boot/bootx64.efi.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup # configuration file; see the ISC server documentation for details on # how to configure the DHCP server. # allow booting; allow bootp; option client-system-arch code 93 = unsigned integer 16; class "pxeclients" { match if substring(option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient"; next-server xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx; if option client-system-arch = 00:07 or option client-system-arch = 00:09 { filename = "mboot.efi"; } else { filename = "pxelinux.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup if exists user-class and option user-class = "iPXE" { # Instruct iPXE to load mboot.efi as secondary bootloader filename = "mboot.efi"; } else { # Load the snponly.efi configuration of iPXE as initial bootloader filename = "snponly.efi"; } } else { if exists user-class and option user-class = "iPXE" { # Instruct iPXE to load pxelinux as secondary bootloader filename = "pxelinux.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Example of Booting Using UEFI HTTP with IPv4 This example shows how to configure an ISC DHCP server to boot ESXi by using native UEFI HTTP over IPv4 from Web server www.example.com. # # ISC DHCP server configuration file snippet. This is not a complete # configuration file; see the ISC server documentation for details on # how to configure the DHCP server.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Using Auto Deploy, experienced system administrators can manage large deployments efficiently. Hosts are network-booted from a central Auto Deploy server. Optionally, hosts are configured with a host profile of a reference host. The host profile can be set up to prompt the user for input. After boot up and configuration complete, the hosts are managed by vCenter Server just like other ESXi hosts. Auto Deploy can also be used for stateless caching or stateful installs.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-16. vSphere Auto Deploy Stores Information for Deployment Information Type Description Source of Information Image state The executable software to run on an ESXi host. Image profile, created with vSphere ESXi Image Builder or a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image. Configuration state The configurable settings that determine how the host is configured, for example, virtual switches and their settings, driver settings, boot parameters, and so on.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Figure 4-5. vSphere Auto Deploy Architecture Auto Deploy PowerCLI Host profiles and host customization Host profile UI Rules Engine Image Builder PowerCLI Image Profiles Auto Deploy server (Web server) Fetch of predefined image profiles and VIBs Plug-in Host profile engine ESXi host HTTP fetch of images/VIBs and host profiles (iPXE boot and update) VIBs and image profiles Public depot vSphere Auto Deploy server Serves images and host profiles to ESXi hosts.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n With ESXi 8.0, you can set up a cluster that manages all ESXi host settings at a cluster level. n VMware customers can create a custom image profile based on the public image profiles and VIBs in the depot and apply that image profile to the host. See Customizing Installations with vSphere ESXi Image Builder. Host profiles Define machine-specific configuration such as networking or storage setup. Use the host profile UI to create host profiles.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup respective MAC address of the NIC used for network booting, or the BIOS UUID of the ESXi host, it automatically provides the custom certificate. You do not need to stop or restart Auto Deploy or vCenter Server when you add a custom certificate to VECS, only restart the host for which you upload a custom certificate. For more information, see Use Custom Certificates with Auto Deploy.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Parameter Description Name Name of the rule, specified with the -Name parameter. Item One or more items, specified with the -Item parameter. An item can be an image profile, a host profile, a vCenter Server inventory location (datacenter, folder, cluster) for the target host, or a custom script. You can specify multiple items separated by commas. Pattern The pattern specifies the host or group of hosts to which the rule applies. vendor Machine vendor name.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup type is mapped by the rules, the vSphere Auto Deploy server uses the item that is first in the rule set. Working Rule Set The working rule set allows you to test changes to rules before making the changes active. For example, you can use vSphere Auto Deploy cmdlets for testing compliance with the working rule set. The test verifies that hosts managed by a vCenter Server system are following the rules in the working rule set.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Set Up Bulk Licensing You can use the vSphere Client or ESXi Shell to specify individual license keys, or you can set up bulk licensing by using PowerCLI cmdlets. Bulk licensing works for all ESXi hosts, but is especially useful for hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup You also need information about and administrator privileges to the core servers of the environment, including the ActiveDirectory server, DNS server, DHCP server, NTP server, and so on. You must have complete control of the broadcast domain of the subnet in which you deploy the setup. Ensure that no other DHCP, DNS, or TFTP server are on this subnet.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Secure your network as for any other PXE-based deployment method. vSphere Auto Deploy transfers data over SSL to prevent casual interference and snooping. However, the authenticity of the client or the vSphere Auto Deploy server is not checked during a PXE boot. n If you want to manage vSphere Auto Deploy with PowerCLI cmdlets, verify that Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 or 4.5.x and Windows PowerShell 3.0 or 4.0 are installed on a Windows machine.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 5 Set up your DHCP server to point to the TFTP server on which the TFTP ZIP file is located. a Specify the TFTP Server's IP address in DHCP option 66, frequently called next-server. b Specify the boot filename, which is snponly64.efi.vmw-hardwired for UEFI or undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired for BIOS in the DHCP option 67, frequently called bootfilename.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n (Optional) If you have to configure host-specific information, set up the host profile of the reference host to prompt for user input. For more information about host customizations, see the vSphere Host Profiles documentation. Using vSphere Auto Deploy Cmdlets vSphere Auto Deploy cmdlets are implemented as Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets and included in PowerCLI. Users of vSphere Auto Deploy cmdlets can take advantage of all PowerCLI features.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Set Up Bulk Licensing You can use the vSphere Client or ESXi Shell to specify individual license keys, or you can set up bulk licensing by using PowerCLI cmdlets. Bulk licensing works for all ESXi hosts, but is especially useful for hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy. Assigning license keys through the vSphere Client and assigning licensing by using PowerCLI cmdlets function differently.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 3 Create a LicenseData object and a LicenseKeyEntry object with associated type ID and license key. $licenseData = New-Object VMware.VimAutomation.License.Types.LicenseData $licenseKeyEntry = New-Object Vmware.VimAutomation.License.Types.LicenseKeyEntry $licenseKeyEntry.TypeId = "vmware-vsphere" $licenseKeyEntry.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup To provision the hosts in your environment with vSphere Auto Deploy successfully, you can follow these steps. 1 Deploy vCenter Server. The vSphere Auto Deploy server is included. 2 Configure the vSphere Auto Deploy service startup type. See Prepare Your System for vSphere Auto Deploy. 3 Install PowerCLI, which includes vSphere Auto Deploy and vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup You can specify the reference host syslog settings, firewall settings, storage, networking, and so on. See Setting Up a vSphere Auto Deploy Reference Host. 10 Create and export a host profile for the reference host. See the Host Profiles documentation. 11 To provision multiple hosts with the host profile, use the Copy-DeployRule cmdlet to edit the previously created rule.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Format any variable and cmdlet output by using Format-List or Format-Table, or their short forms fl or ft. For more information, run the Get-Help Format-List cmdlet. Passing Parameters by Name You can pass in parameters by name in most cases and surround parameter values that contain spaces or special characters with double quotes.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-18. Rule Engine PowerCLI Cmdlets Command Description Get-DeployCommand Returns a list of vSphere Auto Deploy cmdlets. New-DeployRule Creates a new rule with the specified items and patterns. Set-DeployRule Updates an existing rule with the specified items and patterns. You cannot update a rule that is part of a rule set. Get-DeployRule Retrieves the rules with the specified names. Copy-DeployRule Clones and updates an existing rule.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-18. Rule Engine PowerCLI Cmdlets (continued) Command Description Set-DeployMachineIdentity Logically links a host object in the vCenter Server database to a physical machine. Use this cmdlet to add hosts without specifying rules. Get-DeployOption Retrieves the vSphere Auto Deploy global configuration options.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-18. Rule Engine PowerCLI Cmdlets (continued) Command Description Add-CustomCertificate Adds a custom certificate to the VMware Endpoint Certificate Store and associates it with an ESXi host. The certificate becomes active upon host reboot. You can use the Get-CustomCertificate cmdlet to retrieve the custom host certificate key.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup The cmdlet might return a server certificate warning. In a production environment, make sure no server certificate warnings result. In a development environment, you can ignore the warning. 2 Determine the location of a public software depot, or define a custom image profile by using vSphere ESXi Image Builder. 3 Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot to add the software depot that contains the image profile to the PowerCLI session.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup * * Machine attributes: * . asset=No Asset Tag * . domain=vmware.com * . hostname=myhost.mycompany.com * . ipv4=XX.XX.XXX.XXX * . mac=XX:Xa:Xb:Xc:Xx:XX * . model=MyVendorModel * . oemstring=Product ID: XXXXXX-XXX * . serial=XX XX XX XX XX XX... * . uuid=XXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXX * .
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 3 Find the name of the host profile by running Get-VMhostProfile PowerCLI cmdlet, passing in the ESXi host from which you create a host profile. 4 At the PowerCLI prompt, define a rule in which host profiles are assigned to hosts with certain attributes, for example a range of IP addresses. New-DeployRule -Name "testrule2" -Item my_host_profile -Pattern "vendor=Acme,Zven", "ipv4=192.XXX.1.10-192.XXX.1.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup The cmdlet might return a server certificate warning. In a production environment, make sure no server certificate warnings result. In a development environment, you can ignore the warning. 2 Define a rule in which hosts with certain attributes, for example a range of IP addresses, are assigned to a folder or a cluster. New-DeployRule -Name testrule3 -Item "my folder" "ipv4=192.XXX.1.10-192.XXX.1.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup The cmdlet might return a server certificate warning. In a production environment, make sure no server certificate warnings result. In a development environment, you can ignore the warning. 2 Run the Add-ScriptBundle cmdlet to add the script bundle that contains the necessary scripts to the vSphere Auto Deploy inventory. Add-ScriptBundle c:/temp/MyScriptBundle.tgz The name of the script bundle without the .
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites n Prepare your system and install the Auto Deploy Server. For more information, see Prepare Your System for vSphere Auto Deploy. n Verify that your infrastructure includes one or more ESXi hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy, and that the host on which you installed PowerCLI can access those ESXi hosts.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup If the host for which you want to test the new rule set compliance is compliant with the active rule set, the system returns a table of current and expected items. CurrentItem ----------My Profile 25 7 ExpectedItem -----------MyNewProfile Remediate the host to use the revised rule set the next time you boot the host.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Managing vSphere Auto Deploy with the vSphere Client You can add ESXi hosts to the vSphere Auto Deploy inventory, create, monitor, and manage the vSphere Auto Deploy rules, and ESXi host associations by using the vSphere Client.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 9 To provision multiple hosts with the host profile, clone or edit the previously created rule by using the vSphere Client. See Clone a Deploy Rule or Edit a Deploy Rule. 10 Activate the new rule and deactivate the old one. See Activate, Deactivate, and Reorder Deploy Rules. 11 Remediate the host associations to apply the new rule to the host. See Remediate a Non-compliant Host. 12 Verify that the hosts you provisioned meet the following requirements.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 4 Select to either apply the rule to all hosts in the inventory or only to hosts that match a specific pattern. You can select one or more patterns. For example, the rule can apply only to hosts in a vCenter Single Sign-On domain, with a specific host name, or that match a specific IPv4 range. 5 On the Configuration page of the wizard, you can optionally include items in the rule. Each enabled item adds a new page to the wizard.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Change the image profile association of a host. See Edit the Image Profile Association of a Host. Clone a Deploy Rule You can use a vSphere Auto Deploy rule as a template and modify only parts of the rule instead of creating a new one. You can clone an existing vSphere Auto Deploy rule by using the Clone Deploy Rule wizard. Prerequisites n Prepare your system and install the Auto Deploy Server. For more information, see Prepare Your System for vSphere Auto Deploy.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 7 8 9 Option Action Host Profile Assign a host profile to the hosts that match the rule criteria. Script Bundle Assign a script bundle to the host that match the rule criteria. On the Select host location page of the wizard, select a location for the hosts that match the rule. Option Action If you want to keep the host location used in the cloned rule Select the Same Host location check box.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Edit a Deploy Rule You can edit the name of an Auto Deploy rule, its matching hosts, the host location, the image profile, and the host profile if the rule is inactive in the inventory. Prerequisites n Prepare your system and install the Auto Deploy Server. For more information, see Prepare Your System for vSphere Auto Deploy. n Create a vSphere Auto Deploy rule. See Create a Deploy Rule. Procedure 1 Navigate to Home > Auto Deploy.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 6 7 8 On the Select host location page of the wizard, select a location for the hosts that match the rule. Option Action If you want to keep the host location used in the cloned rule Select the Same Host location check box. If you want to select a new location for the selected hosts 1 Select the Browse for Host location check box. 2 Select a data center, folder, or cluster as host location. 3 Click Next.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites n Prepare your system and install the Auto Deploy Server. For more information, see Prepare Your System for vSphere Auto Deploy. n Create a vSphere Auto Deploy rule. See Create a Deploy Rule. Procedure 1 Navigate to Home > Auto Deploy. By default, only the administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere Auto Deploy service. 2 On the Deploy Rules tab, click Activate/Deactivate rules. The Activate and Reorder wizard appears.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup View Host Associations Some of the hosts in the vSphere Auto Deploy inventory might not be compliant with the active deploy rules. To verify that one or more ESXi hosts are compliant with the active rule set, you must check the host associations compliance. Prerequisites n Prepare your system and install the Auto Deploy Server. For more information, see Prepare Your System for vSphere Auto Deploy. n Create a vSphere Auto Deploy rule. See Create a Deploy Rule.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Edit the Image Profile Association of a Host You can edit the image profile association of a single host if the host is not associated with a vSphere Auto Deploy rule or if you do not want to change the image profile association of multiple hosts by editing a rule. Prerequisites n Prepare your system and install the Auto Deploy Server. For more information, see Prepare Your System for vSphere Auto Deploy. n Create a vSphere Auto Deploy rule. See Create a Deploy Rule.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Remediate a Non-compliant Host When you add a rule to the vSphere Auto Deploy active rule set or make changes to one or more rules, hosts are not updated automatically. You must remediate the host associations to apply the new rules to the host. Prerequisites n Prepare your system and install the Auto Deploy Server. For more information, see Prepare Your System for vSphere Auto Deploy. n Create a vSphere Auto Deploy rule. See Create a Deploy Rule.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites n Prepare your system and install the Auto Deploy Server. For more information, see Prepare Your System for vSphere Auto Deploy. n To assign an image profile to the host, add the software depot that you need to the inventory. See Add a Software Depot or Import a Software Depot. Procedure Procedure 1 Navigate to Home > Auto Deploy. By default, only the administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere Auto Deploy service.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Add a Host to a Cluster That Uses a Single Image То add ESXi hosts to a cluster that you manage by a single image, you create a rule in Auto Deploy that assigns such a cluster as the host location for newly added hosts. Each host inherits the same image, which enables hardware compatibility checking, cluster-wide remediation and easier upgrades.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 7 On the Select script bundle page of the wizard, select a script bundle from the list. 8 On the Ready to complete page, review the summary information for the new rule. 9 Click Finish. Results You can view the newly created rule listed on the Deploy Rules tab. What to do next n Activate a vSphere Auto Deploy rule. See Activate, Deactivate, and Reorder Deploy Rules.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 4 Select to either apply the rule to all hosts in the inventory or only to hosts that match a specific pattern. You can select one or more patterns. For example, the rule can apply only to hosts in a vCenter Single Sign-On domain, with a specific host name, or that match a specific IPv4 range. 5 On the Configuration page of the wizard, select the Host Location check box, and click Next. You can ignore the Image, Host Settings and Script Bundle check boxes.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 4 Browse to a script bundle file and select Upload. The script is present in the Script Bundles list. 5 (Optional) Select a script bundle, click Remove, and confirm the selection. The script bundle is deleted from the list. What to do next n Activate a vSphere Auto Deploy rule. See Activate, Deactivate, and Reorder Deploy Rules. n Edit a vSphere Auto Deploy rule. See Edit an Image Profile. n Clone a vSphere Auto Deploy rule.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites Verify that you have a root access to the vCenter Server Management Interface. Procedure 1 Log in to the vCenter Server Management Interface, https://IP-address-or-FQDN:5480. 2 Click Services. The Services pane displays a table of all installed services. You can sort them by name, startup type, health, and state. 3 Select the Auto Deploy service and select your action.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Before a first boot process, you must set up your system. Setup includes the following tasks, which are discussed in more detail in Install and Configure vSphere Auto Deploy. n Set up a DHCP server that assigns an IP address to each host upon startup and that points the host to the TFTP server to download the iPXE boot loader from.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 6 7 vSphere Auto Deploy adds the host to thevCenter Server system that vSphere Auto Deploy is registered with. a If a rule specifies a target folder or cluster on the vCenter Server system, the host is placed in that folder or cluster. The target folder must be under a data center. b If no rule exists that specifies a vCenter Server inventory location, vSphere Auto Deploy adds the host to the first datacenter displayed in the vSphere Client UI.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n DRS cluster host. Virtual machines that were successfully migrated to other hosts stay there. Virtual machines for which no host had enough resources are registered to the rebooted host. If vCenter Server is unavailable, the host contacts the vSphere Auto Deploy server and is provisioned with an image profile. The host continues to contact the vSphere Auto Deploy server until vSphere Auto Deploy reconnects to the vCenter Server.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Figure 4-7.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n Write rules that assign an image profile to the host and optionally assign a host profile and a vCenter Server location to the host. See Managing vSphere Auto Deploy with PowerCLI Cmdlets or Managing vSphere Auto Deploy with the vSphere Client. When the setup is complete, the vSphere Auto Deploy service is enabled, DHCP setup is complete, and rules for the host that you want to provision are in the active rule set. Procedure 1 Turn on the host.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Reprovision Hosts with Simple Reboot Operations A simple reboot of a host that is provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy requires only that all prerequisites are still met. The process uses the previously assigned image profile, host profile, custom script, and vCenter Server location. Prerequisites n Verify that the setup you performed during the first boot operation is in place. See Provision a Host (First Boot). n Verify that all associated items like are available.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites n Verify that the image profile you want to use to reprovision the host is available. Use vSphere ESXi Image Builder in a PowerCLI session. See Customizing Installations with vSphere ESXi Image Builder. n Verify that the setup you performed during the first boot operation is in place. Procedure 1 At the PowerShell prompt, run the Connect-VIServer PowerCLI cmdlet to connect to the vCenter Server system that vSphere Auto Deploy is registered with.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 6 Test the rule compliance for each host that you want to deploy the image to. a Verify that you can access the host for which you want to test rule set compliance. Get-VMHost -Name ESXi_hostname b Run the cmdlet that tests rule set compliance for the host, and bind the return value to a variable for later use. $tr = Test-DeployRuleSetCompliance ESXi_hostname c Examine the differences between the contents of the rule set and configuration of the host. $tr.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 4 (Optional) Select to either apply the rule to all hosts in the inventory or only to hosts that match a specific pattern. You can select one or more patterns. For example, the rule can apply only to hosts in a vCenter Single Sign-On domain, with a specific host name, or that match a specific IPv4 range. 5 On the Configuration page of the wizard, you can optionally include items in the rule. Each enabled item adds a new page to the wizard.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 12 (Optional) If you want to reorder the rules in the active rule list, select a rule that you want to move up or down in the list and click Move up or Move down above the list of active rules. The rules are listed by priority. For example, if two or more rules apply to the same host but are set to provision the host with different host locations, image profiles, and host profiles, the rule that is highest in the list takes effect on the host.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Results The host customization is saved and takes effect the next time you boot the host. Provision ESXi Host by Using an Image Profile Without VMware Tools When you provision ESXi hosts with vSphere Auto Deploy, you can select to provision the hosts with an image profile that does not contain VMware Tools binaries. This image profile is smaller, has a lower memory overhead, and boots faster in a PXE-boot environment.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup The stateless caching solution is primarily intended for situations when several hosts boot simultaneously. The locally cached image helps prevent a bottleneck that results if several hundreds of hosts connect to the vSphere Auto Deploy server simultaneously. After the boot operation is complete, hosts connect to vSphere Auto Deploy to complete the setup.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-19. Preparation for Stateless Caching or Stateful Installs Requirement or Decision Description Decide on VMFS partition overwrite When you install ESXi by using the interactive installer, you are prompted whether you want to overwrite an existing VMFS datastore. The System Cache Configuration host profile provides an option to overwrite existing VMFS partitions. The option is not available if you set up the host profile to use a USB drive.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Understanding Stateless Caching and Stateful Installs When you want to use vSphere Auto Deploy with stateless caching or stateful installs, you must set up a host profile, apply the host profile, and set the boot order. When you apply a host profile that enables caching to a host, vSphere Auto Deploy partitions the specified disk. What happens next depends on how you set up the host profile and how you set the boot order on the host.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 3 vSphere Auto Deploy provisions each host with the image profile or by using the script bundle associated with the rule. The exact effect of applying the host profile depends on the host profile you selected. n n For stateful installs, vSphere Auto Deploy proceeds as follows: n During first boot, vSphere Auto Deploy installs the image on the host. n During subsequent boots, the host boots from disk.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 4 On the Edit host profile page of the wizard, select Advanced Configuration Settings > System Image Cache Configuration > System Image Cache Configuration. 5 In the System Image Cache Profile Settings drop-down menu, choose a policy option. Option Description Enable stateless caching on the host Caches the image to disk. Enable stateless caching to a USB disk on the host Caches the image to a USB disk attached to the host. VMware, Inc.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 6 Depending on the policy option you select, you must do the following: a If you select Enable stateless caching on the host: 1 Specify the information about the disk to use. Option Description Arguments for first disk When configuring a System Image Install disk, you have multiple options to define the device you want ESXi to be installed to and booted from.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Option Description You can use the first disk argument only to specify the search order. You cannot explicitly specify a disk. For example, you cannot specify a specific LUN on a SAN. Check to overwrite any VMFS volumes on the selected disk If you select this check box, the system overwrites existing VMFS volumes if not enough space is available to store the image, image profile, and host profile.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites n Decide which disk to use for storing the image, and determine whether the new image will overwrite an existing VMFS partition. n Set up your environment for vSphere Auto Deploy. See Install and Configure vSphere Auto Deploy. n Verify that a disk with at least 4GB of free space is available. If the disk is not yet partitioned, partitioning happens when you apply the host profile. n Set up the host to boot from disk.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 6 Depending on the policy option you select, you must do the following: a If you select Enable stateful installs on the host: 1 Specify the information about the disk to use. Option Description Arguments for first disk When configuring a System Image Install disk, you have multiple options to define the device you want ESXi to be installed to and booted from.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Option Description You can use the first disk argument only to specify the search order. You cannot explicitly specify a disk. For example, you cannot specify a specific LUN on a SAN. Check to overwrite any VMFS volumes on the selected disk If you select this check box, the system overwrites existing VMFS volumes if not enough space is available to store the image, image profile, and host profile.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Understanding Reference Host Setup A well-designed reference host connects to all services such as syslog, NTP, and so on. The reference host setup might also include security, storage, networking, and ESXi Dump Collector. You can apply such a host's setup to other hosts by using host profiles. The exact setup of your reference host depends on your environment, but you might consider the following customization.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup access by setting up your reference host to use Active Directory. See the vSphere Security documentation. Note If you set up Active Directory by using host profiles, the passwords are not protected. Use the vSphere Authentication Service to set up Active Directory to avoid exposing the Active Directory password.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup The vSphere Client supports setup of networking, storage, security, and most other aspects of an ESXi host. Set up your environment and create a host profile from the reference host for use by vSphere Auto Deploy. ESXCLI You can use ESXCLI for setup of many aspects of your host. ESXCLI is suitable for configuring many of the services in the vSphere environment.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites Install ESXCLI if you want to configure the host to use ESXi Dump Collector. In troubleshooting situations, you can use ESXCLI in the ESXi Shell instead. Procedure 1 Set up an ESXi system to use ESXi Dump Collector by running esxcli system coredump in the local ESXi Shell or by using ESXCLI. esxcli system coredump network set --interface-name vmk0 server-port 6500 --server-ip 10xx.xx.xx.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Prerequisites n Verify that you have created the host profile on which you want to configure a coredump policy. For more information on how to create a host profile, see the vSphere Host Profiles documentation. n Verify that at least one partition has sufficient storage capability for core dumps from multiple hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy. Procedure 1 Navigate to Home > Policies and Profiles > Host Profiles.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 (Optional) If no reference host exists in your environment, click Extract Profile from Host to create a host profile. 3 Click the host profile you want to configure and select the Configure tab. 4 Click Edit Host Profile. 5 Select Advanced Configuration Settings > Advanced Options > Advanced configuration options. You can select specific sub-profiles and edit the syslog settings. 6 7 (Optional) To create an advanced configuration option.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 6 In the NTP Servers text box, type the IP addresses or host names of the NTP servers that you want to use. 7 Click OK. What to do next n Extract a host profile from the reference host. See the Host Profiles documentation. n Create a rule that applies the host profile to all hosts that you want to provision with the settings specified in the reference host. For writing a rule in a PowerCLI session, see Write a Rule and Assign a Host Profile to Hosts.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Configure a Reference Host for Auto-Partitioning By default, vSphere Auto Deploy provisions hosts only if a partition is available on the host. The auto-partitioning option creates a VMFS datastore on your host's local storage. You can set up a reference host to auto-partition all hosts that you provision with vSphere Auto Deploy. Caution If you change the default auto-partitioning behavior, vSphere Auto Deploy overwrites existing partitions regardless of their content.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Converting Stateless Hosts to Stateful Hosts You can add physical storage to your stateless ESXi, convert them to stateful ESXi hosts, and add the hosts to a cluster that you manage by an image. Your ESXi hosts must have physical storage attached, because a cluster managed by an image does not support stateless ESXi hosts, that use a Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) boot.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 4 5 In the System Image Cache Profile Settings drop-down menu, choose a policy option. Option Description Enable stateless caching on the host Caches the image to disk. Enable stateless caching to a USB disk on the host Caches the image to a USB disk attached to the host.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 17 Power on each ESXi host, enter the BIOS/UEFI setup, and change the boot order to boot first from the newly added storage and then from the network. Since the newly added storage is empty, each ESXi host boots from the network and installs the ESXi 8.0 image that you specified earlier on the storage. After the installation, each ESXi host reboots and boots from the newly added storage.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 6 From the home menu, click Auto Deploy. 7 Deactivate the Auto Deploy rule that contains an Image Profile, and click Edit. The Edit Deploy Rule dialog box appears. 8 On the Select image profile page of the wizard, select an ESXi 8.0 image profile. 9 On the Select host profile page of the wizard, select the new host profile. 10 Activate the rule and move the rule to the rule's initial position in the ordered list.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 From the home menu, click Policies and Profiles, and select Host Profiles. 2 Extract a host profile from a running ESXi host or duplicate an existing host profile with a specified configuration and a host location. The existing host profile can be attached either to a host or to a cluster.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Convert a Stateless ESXi Host with a Single VMFS Partition on a Remote Disk To add your stateless ESXi hosts to a cluster that you manage by an image, first you must convert the hosts to stateful hosts by repartitioning their remote VMFS partitions and installing a standard ESXi 8.0 image. For example, your ESXi host can boot from Fibre Channel SAN or from iSCSI SAN.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 12 Click Remediate Host Associations for the ESXi host. You can monitor the progress of the remediation process in the Recent Tasks pane. 13 Restart the ESXi hosts. Each ESXi host boots from the network, repartitions the VMFS partition to a standard ESXi installation partition, and installs the ESXi 8.0 image that you specified earlier on the partition. After the installation, each ESXi host reboots again and boots from the remote standard ESXi partition.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup managed by vSphere Auto Deploy and pin the vCenter Server virtual machine to these hosts by using a rule (vSphere HA DRS required VM to host rule). You can set up the rule and then deactivate DRS if you do not want to use DRS in the cluster. The greater the number of hosts that are not managed by vSphere Auto Deploy, the greater your resilience to host failures. Note This approach is not suitable if you use Auto Start Manager.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup You can deploy ESXi using either image profile. n If the network boot time is of no concern, and your environment has sufficient extra memory and storage overhead, use the image that includes VMware Tools. n If you find the network boot time too slow when using the standard image, or if you want to save some space on the hosts, you can use the image profile that does not include VMware Tools, and place the VMware Tools binaries on shared storage.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup server and apply that host's host profile to all other target hosts. Optionally, install and use the vSphere Syslog Collector, a vCenter Server support tool that provides a unified architecture for system logging, enables network logging, and lets you combine logs from multiple hosts. Setting Up ESXi Dump Collector Hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy do not have a local disk to store core dumps on.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Figure 4-9.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 Set up the following virtual machines on the management cluster. Infrastructure Component Description PXE boot infrastructure TFTP and DHCP servers. Infrastructure VM Active Directory, DNS, vCenter Server. vSphere Auto Deploy environment PowerCLI, vSphere Auto Deploy server, vCenter Server. Set up this environment on a single virtual machine or on three separate virtual machines in production systems.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Device Alias Configuration Device aliases, also called device names, are short names associated with I/O adapters in an I/O subsystem. For example, network uplinks have aliases such as vmnic0, vmnic1, and so on. SCSI adapter objects in the storage subsystem and graphics device objects also have aliases. A hardware device can be presented as multiple I/O adapters in the I/O subsystem. The I/O adapters can be of a different type from the underlying physical device.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup n A stack upgrade might result in changes to parts of a multi-module driver setup, or to the ESXi I/O stack that supports a multi-module driver. n BIOS or device firmware upgrades might lead to incomplete port or slot information. n Changes in the slot position of a device. Note If you remove a device from the system, the alias configuration of the I/O adapters of the device is removed.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Command Description network nic list Lists aliases and general information about network devices. storage core adapter list Lists all storage I/O adapters. Note ESXCLI commands are supported commands. Using alternative sources for displaying alias information is not recommended.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 To list the current assignment of aliases to device addresses, in the ESXi Shell, run localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int/ deviceInternal alias list. For I/O adapters that are based on PCI hardware, you usually see a logical and a PCI alias entry. For some I/O adapters, you usually see a logical alias entry only. For PCI hardware devices without I/O adapters, you usually see a PCI alias entry only.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup To perform the tasks in this scenario, you should have the following background knowledge and privileges. n Experience with vSphere (vCenter Server and ESXi). n Basic knowledge of Microsoft PowerShell and PowerCLI. n Administrator rights to a Windows system and a vCenter Server system. Follow the tasks in the order presented in this scenario. Some steps can be performed in a different order, but the order used here limits repeated manipulation of some components.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Figure 4-10.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup vSphere Auto Deploy takes advantage of the iPXE infrastructure and PXE booting with legacy BIOS firmware is possible only over IPv4. If the hosts that you want to provision with vSphere Auto Deploy are with legacy BIOS, the vSphere Auto Deploy server must have an IPv4 address. PXE booting with UEFI firmware is possible with either IPv4 or IPv6.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 9 Create a Rule that Provisions Hosts from a Specific IP Range After creating a host profile from a reference host, you can create a rule that applies the previously verified image profile and the host profile that you extracted to target hosts from a specific IP range. 10 Provision Hosts and Set Up Host Customizations With the rule in place that provisions hosts using an image profile and a host profile, you can provision specific target hosts.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 To install all PowerCLI modules, run the command: Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser. Alternatively, you can install individual PowerCLI modules by running the Install-Module cmdlet with the module name. If you see a warning that you are installing modules from an untrusted repository, press y and then press Enter to confirm the installation.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 Log in to your DHCP Server with administrator privileges. 2 Create a DHCP scope for your IP address range. 3 4 a Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools and click DHCP. b Navigate to DHCP > hostname > IPv4. c Right-click IPv4 and select New Scope. d On the Welcome screen, click Next, and specify a name and description for the scope. e Specify an IP address range and click Next.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup d Click 066 Boot Server Host Name and enter the address of the TFTP server that you installed in the String value field below the Available Options. e Click 067 Bootfile Name and enter undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired. The undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired iPXE binary will be used to boot the ESXi hosts. f Click Apply and click OK to close the window. 5 In the DHCP window, right-click DHCP > hostname > IPv4 > Scope > Activate and click Activate.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 3 In the Auto Deploy inventory, click the Configure tab. 4 Click the Download TFTP Zip File. 5 Save the file deploy-tftp.zip to the TFTP_Root directory that you created when you installed the TFTP Server, and unzip the file. What to do next Add a software depot to your inventory and use an image profile from the depot to create a rule for host provisioning.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 4 Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot to add the online depot to the PowerCLI session. Add-EsxSoftwareDepot https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depotindex.xml Adding the software depot is required each time you start a new PowerCLI session. 5 Validate that you successfully added the software depot by checking the contents of the depot with the Get-EsxImageProfile cmdlet. The cmdlet returns information about all image profiles in the depot.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup What to do next Extract a host profile from the host and configure it to require user input. Extract and Configure a Host Profile from the Reference Host After provisioning the first host, you can extract and configure a host profile that can be used to apply the same configuration to other target hosts. Configuration that differs for different hosts, such as a static IP address, can be managed through the host customization mechanism.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 In a PowerCLI session, run the Connect-VIServer cmdlet to connect to the vCenter Server system that vSphere Auto Deploy is registered with. Connect-VIServer ipv4_address The cmdlet might return a server certificate warning. In a production environment, make sure no server certificate issues occur. In a development environment, you can ignore the warning. 3 Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot to add the online depot to the PowerCLI session.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 Boot the remaining hosts you want to provision. vSphere Auto Deploy boots the hosts, applies the host profile, and adds the hosts to the vCenter Server inventory. The hosts remain in maintenance mode because the host profile from the reference host is set up to require user input for each host. 2 Use the vSphere Client to connect to the vCenter Server system that manages the vSphere Auto Deploy server.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Cause When the cache lifetime of files cached by Auto Deploy expires, Auto Deploy automatically refreshes the cache from the software depot. Since a default software depot is usually more than 300 MB, depending on the network, the download might take long. You can also see a delay in deploying Auto Deploy rules when converting a cluster that you manage with a single image to one that you manage with a configuration on a cluster level.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Cause After the host has been added to a vCenter Server system, the boot configuration is determined by the vCenter Server system. The vCenter Server system associates an image profile, host profile, or folder location with the host. Solution u Use the Test-DeployRuleSetCompliance and Repair-DeployRuleSetCompliance vSphere PowerCLI cmdlets to reevalute the rules and to associate the correct image profile, host profile, or folder location with the host.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Cause Each VIB in an image profile has a stateless-ready flag that indicates that the VIB is meant for use with vSphere Auto Deploy. You get the error if you attempt to write a vSphere Auto Deploy rule that uses an image profile in which one or more VIBs have that flag set to FALSE. Note You can use hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy that include VIBs that are not stateless ready without problems.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Problem A host to be provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy boots from iPXE and displays iPXE information on the console. However, after five minutes, the host displays the following message to the console and reboots. This host is attempting to network-boot using VMware AutoDeploy. However, there is no ESXi image associated with this host. Details: No rules containing an Image Profile match this host.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Cause The TFTP server might have stopped running, or a firewall might block the TFTP port. Solution n If you installed the WinAgents TFTP server, open the WinAgents TFTP management console and verify that the service is running. If the service is running, check the Windows firewall's inbound rules to make sure the TFTP port is not blocked. Turn off the firewall temporarily to see whether the firewall is the problem.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 4 If the server is not accessible, a firewall problem is likely. a Try setting up permissive TCP Inbound rules for the vSphere Auto Deploy server port. The port is 6501 unless you specified a different port during installation. b As a last resort, deactivate the firewall temporarily and enable it again after you verified whether it blocked the traffic. Do not deactivate the firewall on production environments.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup c Attempt to provision the host with vSphere Auto Deploy. d Type the following command to turn the firewall back on. netsh firewall set opmode enable 4 Set up rules to allow DHCP network traffic to the target hosts. See the firewall documentation for DHCP and for the Windows system on which the DHCP server is running for details. vSphere Auto Deploy Host Does Not Network Boot The host you provision with vSphere Auto Deploy comes up but does not network boot.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 3 Check the logs for the following message: DatabaseError: database disk image is malformed. If you see the message, replace the existing database with the most recent backup. 4 Go to the vSphere Auto Deploy data directory at /var/lib/rbd. The directory contains a file named db, and backup files named db-yyy-mm-dd. 5 Rename the current db file. VMware Support might ask for that file if you call for assistance. 6 Rename the most recent backup to db.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Connect a keyboard and monitor to the host to use the direct console. After the host completes the autoconfiguration phase, the direct console appears on the monitor. You can examine the default network configuration and change any settings that are not compatible with your network environment.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Create a Security Banner for the Direct Console A security banner is a message that is displayed on the direct console Welcome screen. Procedure 1 From the vSphere Client, connect to the vCenter Server. 2 Select the host in the inventory. 3 Click the Configure tab. 4 Under System, select Advanced System Settings. 5 Select Annotations.WelcomeMessage. 6 Click the Edit icon. 7 Enter a security message.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Results The direct console is redirected to the serial port until you reboot the host. To redirect the direct console for subsequent boots, see Redirect the Direct Console to a Serial Port from the vSphere Client Redirect the Direct Console to a Serial Port from the vSphere Client You can manage the ESXi host remotely from a console that is connected to the serial port by redirecting the direct console to either of the serial ports com1 or com2.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 3 Under System, select Advanced System Settings. 4 Make sure that the VMkernel.Boot.logPort and VMkernel.Boot.gdbPort fields are not set to use the com port that you want to redirect the direct console to. 5 Set VMkernel.Boot.tty2Port to the serial port to redirect the direct console to: com1 or com2. 6 Click OK. 7 Save the host profile and attach the host to the profile. See the vSphere Host Profiles documentation.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup c Press Enter. d Enter the idle timeout. The idle timeout is the number of minutes that can elapse before the user is logged out of an idle interactive sessions. Changes to the idle timeout apply the next time a user logs in to the ESXi Shell and do not affect existing sessions. 6 Press Esc until you return to the main menu of the Direct Console User Interface.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Change the BIOS Boot Setting for ESXi Configure the BIOS boot setting for ESXi if you want the server to boot into ESXi by default. ESXi Installable and ESXi Embedded cannot exist on the same host. Procedure 1 While the ESXi host is powering on, press the key required to enter your host’s BIOS setup. Depending on your server hardware, the key might be a function key or Delete. The option to enter the BIOS setup might be different for your server.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Results The server boots from the configured device once and goes back to the default boot order for subsequent boots. When you install or upgrade ESXi in UEFI mode, you do not need to change the boot order, because the system default boot order is set to VMware ESXi. Configuring Network Settings ESXi requires one IP address for the management network. To configure basic network settings, use the vSphere Client or the direct console.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-21. Network Configuration Scenarios Supported by ESXi (continued) Scenario Approach The ESXi host is connected to a functioning DHCP server, but you do not want to use the DHCPconfigured IP address. During the autoconfiguration phase, the software assigns a DHCPconfigured IP address. You can make the initial connection by using the DHCP-configured IP address. Then you can configure a static IP address.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup During the autoconfiguration phase, the ESXi host chooses vmnic0 for management traffic. You can override the default choice by manually choosing the network adapter that carries management traffic for the host. In some cases, you might want to use a Gigabit Ethernet network adapter for your management traffic. Another way to help ensure availability is to select multiple network adapters. Using multiple network adapters enables load balancing and failover capabilities.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Procedure 1 Select Configure Management Network and press Enter. 2 Select IP Configuration and press Enter. 3 Select Set static IP address and network configuration. 4 Enter the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway and press Enter. Configure IP Settings from the vSphere Client If you do not have physical access to the host, you can use the vSphere Client to configure static IP settings. Procedure 1 Log in to the vCenter Server from the vSphere Client.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Configure DNS Settings from the Direct Console If you have physical access to the host or remote access to the direct console, you can use the direct console to configure DNS information. Procedure 1 Select Configure Management Network and press Enter. 2 Select DNS Configuration and press Enter. 3 Select Use the following DNS server addresses and hostname. 4 Enter the primary server, an alternative server (optional), and the host name.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup The direct console performs the following tests. n Pings the default gateway n Pings the primary DNS name server n Pings the secondary DNS nameserver n Resolves the configured host name Procedure 1 From the direct console, select Test Management Network and press Enter. 2 Press Enter to start the test.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 2 Press F11 to confirm the restart. Test Connectivity to Devices and Networks You can use the direct console to perform some simple network connectivity tests. In addition to the management network, you can specify other devices and networks. Procedure 1 From the direct console, select Test Management Network and press Enter. 2 Type addresses to ping or another DNS host name to resolve. 3 Press Enter to start the test.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup You can configure the amount and location of the logs. You can also create and apply log filters to modify the logging policy of an ESXi host. Configure Syslog on ESXi Hosts You can use the vSphere Client, the VMware Host Client, or the esxcli system syslog command to configure the syslog service. For information about using the esxcli system syslog command and other ESXCLI commands, see Getting Started with ESXCLI.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-22. Legacy Syslog Options Option ESXCLI command Description Syslog.global.logHost esxcli system syslog config set --loghost= Defines a comma-delimited list of remote hosts and specifications for message transmissions. If the loghost= field is blank, no logs are forwarded. While no hard limit to the number of remote hosts to receive syslog messages exists, good practice is to keep the number of remote hosts to five or less.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-22. Legacy Syslog Options (continued) Option ESXCLI command Description Syslog.global.logDirUnique esxcli system syslog config set --logdir-unique= Specifies the ESXi host name to be concatenated to the value of Syslog.global.logDir. It is critical that you enable this setting when multiple ESXi hosts log to a shared file system. Selecting this option creates a subdirectory with the name of the ESXi host under the directory specified by Syslog.global.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-23. Syslog Options Available Starting from ESXi 7.0 Update 1 (continued) Option ESXCLI command Description Syslog.global.certificate.chec kCRL esxcli system syslog config set --crl-check= Enables checking the revocation status of all the certificates in an SSL certificate chain. Enables verification of X.509 CRLs, which are not checked by default in compliance with industry conventions. A NIAP-validated configuration requires CRL checks.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-23. Syslog Options Available Starting from ESXi 7.0 Update 1 (continued) Option ESXCLI command Description Syslog.global.logFilters esxcli system syslog logfile [add | remove | set] ... Specifies one or more log filtering specifications. Each log filter must be separated by a double vertical bar "||". The format of a log filter is: numLogs | ident | logRegexp. numLogs sets the maximum number of log entries for the specified log messages.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Table 4-23. Syslog Options Available Starting from ESXi 7.0 Update 1 (continued) Option ESXCLI command Description Syslog.global.remoteHost.maxMs gLen esxcli system syslog config set --remote-host-maxmsg-len= For the TCP and SSL protocols, this parameter specifies the maximum length of a syslog transmission before truncation occurs, in bytes. The default maximum length for remote host messages is 1 KiB.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup When a message is longer than the maximum length, ESXi 8.0 mitigates the message, trying to preserve as much of the structured data as possible. When a message is mitigated, three parameters are either added to existing structured data or structured data is created to contain these parameters: msgModified, remoteHostMaxMsgLen, and originalLen .
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Formatting Framing UDP TCP SSL Comments RFC 5424 Unspecified Supported Supported Supported RFC 5426 RFC 5425 RFC 5424 Formatting of messages complies to RFC 5424. Framing defaults to octetcounting with TCP or SSL (TLS). With UDP, framing might not be explicitly specified. RFC 5424 Non_transparen t Forbidden Not Supported Not Supported Not supported because embedded newlines in structured data might create corrupted messages.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup In ESXi 8.0, log files are written either directly, from a single service such as VMX, or indirectly, when logs from a service are submitted to a syslog. For example, VMX always writes log messages in the vmware.log file of each virtual machine. To spare system resources, VMX does not submit log messages to the syslog.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup NILVALUE - (A single threaded program might not have a thread name and NILVALUE is acceptable.) THREAD-NAME NILVALUE / 1*32PRINTUSASCII (The component (APP-NAME) is implied when a single program writes the file and no component field is necessary, only the thread name.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup SEVERITY-STRING Em/ Al / Cr / Er / Wa / No / In / Db (The 8 severity levels specified in RFC 5424 are abbreviated as follows: n Em - Emergency n Al - Alert n Cr - Critical n Er - Error n Wa - Warning n No - Notice n In - Informational n Db - Debug SEVERITY SEVERITY-STRING PRI-STRING [LINE-MARKER] PRIVAL 1*3DIGIT ; range 0 ..
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup RFC 3164 Transmission Message Format Parameter Value SYSLOG-MSG HEADER SP MSG HEADER PRI TIMESTAMP SP HOSTNAME SP APP-NAME [PROC-IDENTIFIER] ":" PRI "<" PRIVAL ">" PRIVAL 1*3DIGIT ; range 0 ..
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Parameter Value SYSLOG-MSG HEADER SP STRUCTURED-DATA [SP MSG] HEADER PRI VERSION SP TIMESTAMP SP HOSTNAME SP APP-NAME SP PROCID SP MSGID PRI "<" PRIVAL ">" PRIVAL 1*3DIGIT ; range 0 ..
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup MSG-UTF8 BOM UTF-8-STRING BOM %xEF.BB.BF Configure Log Filtering on ESXi Hosts The log filtering capability lets you modify the logging policy of the syslog service that is running on an ESXi host. You can create log filters to reduce the number of repetitive entries in the ESXi logs and to denylist specific log events entirely. Starting with vSphere 7.0 Update 2, you can add logfilters and enable logfitering by using ESXCLI.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup See Working with Acceptance Levels. Prerequisites Required privileges: Host.Configuration.SecurityProfile and Host.Configuration.Firewall Procedure 1 From the vSphere Client, connect to the vCenter Server. 2 Select the host in the inventory. 3 Click the Configure tab. 4 Under System, select Security Profile. 5 Scroll down to Host Image Profile Acceptance Level, and click Edit. 6 Select the acceptance level and click OK. Table 4-24.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Deactivate Support for Non-ASCII Characters in Virtual Machine File and Directory Names By default, ESXi supports the use of non-ASCII characters for virtual machine file and directory names. You can deactivate this support by modifying the /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml file. After you deactivate this support, you can still enter non-ASCII characters for virtual machine names.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 3 Press F11 to confirm. Results The system reboots after all settings are reset to the default values. After You Install and Set Up ESXi After ESXi is installed and set up, you can manage the host by using the vSphere Client and vCenter Server, license the host, and back up your ESXi configuration. You can also use the VMware Host Client to connect directly to the ESXi host and to manage it.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup Recording the License Key of an ESXi Host If a host becomes inaccessible or unbootable, you should have a record of its license key. You can write down the license key and tape it to the server, or put the license key in a secure location. You can access the license key from the direct console user interface or the vSphere Client.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 4 Perform a regular expression search. a Press the slash key (/). b Type the text to find. c Press Enter. The found text is highlighted on the screen. 5 Press q to return to the direct console. What to do next See also Configure Syslog on ESXi Hosts. VMware, Inc.
Troubleshooting ESXi Booting 5 The ESXi booting troubleshooting topics provide solutions to problems that you might encounter during the ESXi booting.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 7 In the ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation text box, enter a directory path that is unique for this host. For example, /vmfs/volumes/DatastoreUUID/DatastoreFolder. 8 Reboot the host for the changes to take effect. Host Fails to Boot After You Install ESXi in UEFI Mode After you install ESXi on a host machine in UEFI mode, the machine might fail to boot.
Decommission an ESXi Host 6 If you do not want your server to be an ESXi host, you can decommission the ESXi host machine. Procedure 1 Remove VMFS datastores on the internal disks so that the internal disks are no longer set up to store virtual machines. 2 Change the boot setting in the BIOS so that the host no longer boots into ESXi. If you installed ESXi in UEFI mode, delete the boot option VMware ESXi or any other boot option created manually. 3 Install another operating system in its place.
