Specifications

Table Of Contents
Table 77. 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,” on page 157, “PXE Boot
the ESXi Installer by Using PXELINUX and a PXE Configuration File,” on page 161, “PXE Boot the ESXi
Installer by Using PXELINUX and an isolinux.cfg PXE Configuration File,” on page 163, and “PXE Booting
the ESXi Installer,” on page 158.
Install, Upgrade, or Migrate ESXi from a CD or DVD Using a Script
You can install, upgrade, or migrate ESXi from a CD/DVD drive using a script that specifies the installation
or upgrade options.
You can start the installation or upgrade script by entering a boot option when you start the host. You can
also create an installer ISO image that includes the installation script. With an installer ISO image, you can
perform a scripted, unattended installation when you boot the resulting installer ISO image. See “Create an
Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script,” on page 157.
IMPORTANT After you upgrade or migrate your host from ESX/ESXi 4.x to ESXi 5.x, you cannot roll back to
your version 4.x ESX or ESXi software. Back up your host before you perform an upgrade or migration, so
that, if the upgrade or migration fails, you can restore your 4.x host.
Prerequisites
Before you run the scripted installation, upgrade, or migration, verify that the following prerequisites are
met:
n
The system on which you are installing, upgrading, or migrating meets the hardware requirements. See
“ESXi Hardware Requirements,” on page 13.
n
You have the ESXi installer ISO on an installation CD/DVD. See “Download and Burn the ESXi Installer
ISO Image to a CD or DVD,” on page 154.
n
The default installation or upgrade script (ks.cfg) or a custom installation or upgrade script is
accessible to the system. See “About Installation and Upgrade Scripts,” on page 184.
n
You have selected a boot command to run the scripted installation, upgrade or migration. See “Enter
Boot Options to Start an Installation or Upgrade Script,” on page 182. For a complete list of boot
commands, see “Boot Options,” on page 183.
Procedure
1 Boot the ESXi installer from the CD or DVD using the local CD/DVD-ROM drive.
vSphere Upgrade
194 VMware, Inc.