Users Guide

1 Introduction................................................................................................................................. 5
vSphere 6.5.x architecture...................................................................................................................................................5
Overview of ESXi architecture............................................................................................................................................ 6
2 Installing vSphere 6.5.x................................................................................................................ 8
Download Dell EMC customized ESXi image.....................................................................................................................8
Download Dell EMC customized ESXi image from Dell EMC support site...............................................................8
Download Dell EMC customized ESXi image from VMware site.............................................................................. 8
Important information for the Dell EMC-customized ESXi image.............................................................................9
Installing, enabling and disabling ESXi................................................................................................................................. 9
Overview of Dell NUMA Fault Resilient Memory ........................................................................................................9
Enabling Dell NUMA Fault Resilient Memory............................................................................................................... 9
Overview of Dell Fault Resilient Memory.................................................................................................................... 10
Enabling Dell Fault Resilient Memory...........................................................................................................................10
Installing ESXi on flash media........................................................................................................................................ 11
Installing ESXi on the hard drive...................................................................................................................................12
Installing ESXi on the BOSS-S1 device........................................................................................................................12
Enabling or disabling internal SD card..........................................................................................................................13
Configuring one-time boot to ESXi..............................................................................................................................13
Configuring boot sequence to ESXi.............................................................................................................................13
VMware ESXi Secure boot support for Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers....................................................................... 14
Downloading patches and updates for ESXi.................................................................................................................... 15
Creating vCenter Server installation media...................................................................................................................... 15
Installing vCenter Server.....................................................................................................................................................15
3 Deploying vSphere 6.5.x.............................................................................................................. 16
vSphere configuration using Dell EMC Fibre Channel SAN............................................................................................17
vSphere configuration using iSCSI SAN............................................................................................................................17
Booting ESXi......................................................................................................................................................................... 18
Configuring the password...................................................................................................................................................18
Configuring Lockdown mode..............................................................................................................................................19
Managing management network services........................................................................................................................ 19
4 Configuration back up and restore procedures..............................................................................20
Restoring configuration of your ESXi host.......................................................................................................................20
5 Licensing information..................................................................................................................21
License evaluation................................................................................................................................................................ 21
vSphere licensing..................................................................................................................................................................21
Administering license keys...................................................................................................................................................21
6 Troubleshooting ESXi................................................................................................................. 23
ESXi installation....................................................................................................................................................................23
ESXi does not boot or displays a no OS found message at start up ..................................................................... 23
Contents
Contents 3