6.7
Table Of Contents
- VMware ESXi Installation and Setup
- Contents
- About VMware ESXi Installation and Setup
- Introduction to vSphere Installation and Setup
- Overview of the vSphere Installation and Setup Process
- About ESXi Evaluation and Licensed Modes
- Installing and Setting Up ESXi
- ESXi Requirements
- Preparing for Installing ESXi
- Download the ESXi Installer
- Options for Installing ESXi
- Media Options for Booting the ESXi Installer
- Download and Burn the ESXi Installer ISO Image to a CD or DVD
- Format a USB Flash Drive to Boot the ESXi Installation or Upgrade
- Create a USB Flash Drive to Store the ESXi Installation Script or Upgrade Script
- Create an Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script
- PXE Booting the ESXi Installer
- Installing and Booting ESXi with Software FCoE
- Using Remote Management Applications
- Customizing Installations with vSphere ESXi Image Builder
- Required Information for ESXi Installation
- Installing ESXi
- Installing ESXi Interactively
- Installing or Upgrading Hosts by Using a Script
- Approaches for Scripted Installation
- Enter Boot Options to Start an Installation or Upgrade Script
- About Installation and Upgrade Scripts
- Install or Upgrade ESXi from a CD or DVD by Using a Script
- Install or Upgrade ESXi from a USB Flash Drive by Using a Script
- Performing a Scripted Installation or Upgrade of ESXi by Using PXE to Boot the Installer
- PXE Booting the ESXi Installer
- Installing ESXi Using vSphere Auto Deploy
- Understanding vSphere Auto Deploy
- Preparing for vSphere Auto Deploy
- Managing vSphere Auto Deploy with PowerCLI Cmdlets
- vSphere Auto Deploy PowerCLI Cmdlet Overview
- Assign an Image Profile to Hosts
- Write a Rule and Assign a Host Profile to Hosts
- Write a Rule and Assign a Host to a Folder or Cluster
- Configure a Stateless System by Running a Custom Script
- Test and Repair Rule Compliance
- Register a Caching Proxy Server Address with vSphere Auto Deploy
- Managing vSphere Auto Deploy with the vSphere Web Client
- Create a Deploy Rule
- Start the New Deploy Rule Wizard
- Name the Rule and Define Matching Criteria in the New Deploy Rule Wizard
- Select an Image Profile in the New Deploy Rule Wizard
- Select a Host Profile in the New Deploy Rule Wizard
- Select Host Location in the New Deploy Rule Wizard
- View the Summary of the New Deploy Rule Wizard
- Clone a Deploy Rule
- Start the Clone Deploy Rule Wizard
- Name the Rule and Define Matching Criteria in the Clone Deploy Rule Wizard
- Select an Image Profile in the Clone Deploy Rule Wizard
- Select a Host Profile in the Clone Deploy Rule Wizard
- Select Host Location in the Clone Deploy Rule
- View the Summary of the Clone Deploy Rule Wizard
- Editing a Deploy Rule
- Activate, Deactivate, and Reorder Deploy Rules
- View Host Associations
- Edit the Image Profile Association of a Host
- Remediate a Non-compliant Host
- Add a Host to the vSphere Auto Deploy Inventory
- Create a Deploy Rule
- Provisioning ESXi Systems with vSphere Auto Deploy
- Using vSphere Auto Deploy for Stateless Caching and Stateful Installs
- Setting Up a vSphere Auto Deploy Reference Host
- Understanding Reference Host Setup
- Options for Configuration of a vSphere Auto Deploy Reference Host
- Configure ESXi Dump Collector with ESXCLI
- Configure ESXi Dump Collector from the Host Profiles Feature in the vSphere Web Client
- Configure Syslog from the Host Profiles Feature in the vSphere Web Client
- Enable NTP Client on a Reference Host in the vSphere Web Client
- Configure Networking for Your vSphere Auto Deploy Host in the vSphere Web Client
- Configure a Reference Host for Auto-Partitioning
- vSphere Auto Deploy Best Practices and Security Consideration
- Set Up vSphere Auto Deploy and Provision Hosts with vSphere PowerCLI
- vSphere Auto Deploy Preinstallation Checklist
- Install the TFTP Server
- Install PowerCLI
- Prepare the vSphere Auto Deploy Target Hosts
- Prepare the DHCP Server for vSphere Auto Deploy Provisioning
- Configure the vSphere Auto Deploy and TFTP Environment in the vSphere Web Client
- Prepare the ESXi Software Depot and Write a Rule
- Provision the First Host with vSphere Auto Deploy
- Extract and Configure a Host Profile from the Reference Host
- Create a Rule that Provisions Hosts from a Specific IP Range
- Provision Hosts and Set Up Host Customizations
- Troubleshooting vSphere Auto Deploy
- vSphere Auto Deploy TFTP Timeout Error at Boot Time
- vSphere Auto Deploy Host Boots with Wrong Configuration
- Host Is Not Redirected to vSphere Auto Deploy Server
- Package Warning Message When You Assign an Image Profile to a vSphere Auto Deploy Host
- vSphere Auto Deploy Host with a Built-In USB Flash Drive Does Not Send Coredumps to Local Disk
- vSphere Auto Deploy Host Reboots After Five Minutes
- vSphere Auto Deploy Host Cannot Contact TFTP Server
- vSphere Auto Deploy Host Cannot Retrieve ESXi Image from vSphere Auto Deploy Server
- vSphere Auto Deploy Host Does Not Get a DHCP Assigned Address
- vSphere Auto Deploy Host Does Not Network Boot
- Recovering from Database Corruption on the vSphere Auto Deploy Server
- Setting Up ESXi
- ESXi Autoconfiguration
- About the Direct Console ESXi Interface
- Enable ESXi Shell and SSH Access with the Direct Console User Interface
- Managing ESXi Remotely
- Set the Password for the Administrator Account
- Configuring the BIOS Boot Settings
- Configuring Network Settings
- Network Access to Your ESXi Host
- ESXi Networking Security Recommendations
- Choose Network Adapters for the Management Network
- Set the VLAN ID
- Configuring IP Settings for ESXi
- Configuring DNS for ESXi
- Configure the Network Settings on a Host That Is Not Attached to the Network
- Test the Management Network
- Restart the Management Agents
- Restart the Management Network
- Test Connectivity to Devices and Networks
- Restoring the Standard Switch
- Storage Behavior
- Configuring System Logging
- Set the Host Image Profile Acceptance Level
- Remove All Custom Packages on ESXi
- Disable Support for Non-ASCII Characters in Virtual Machine File and Directory Names
- Reset the System Configuration
- After You Install and Set Up ESXi
- Troubleshooting ESXi Booting
- Decommission an ESXi Host
When ESXi boots, the system tries to find a suitable partition on a local disk to create a scratch partition.
The scratch partition is not required. It is used to store vm-support output, which you need when you
create a support bundle. If the scratch partition is not present, vm-support output is stored in a ramdisk. In
low-memory situations, you might want to create a scratch partition if one is not present.
For the installable version of ESXi, the partition is created during installation and is selected. VMware
recommends that you do not modify the partition.
Note To create the VMFS volume and scratch partition, the ESXi installer requires a minimum of 5.2 GB
of free space on the installation disk.
For ESXi Embedded, if a partition is not found, but an empty local disk exists, the system formats it and
creates a scratch partition. If no scratch partition is created, you can configure one, but a scratch partition
is not required. You can also override the default configuration. You might want to create the scratch
partition on a remote NFS-mounted directory.
Note The installer can create multiple VFAT partitions. The VFAT designation does not always indicate
that the partition is a scratch partition. Sometimes, a VFAT partition can simply lie idle.
Set the Scratch Partition from the vSphere Web Client
If a scratch partition is not set up, you might want to configure one, especially if low memory is a concern.
When a scratch partition is not present, vm-support output is stored in a ramdisk.
Prerequisites
The directory to use for the scratch partition must exist on the host.
Procedure
1 From the vSphere Web Client, connect to the vCenter Server.
2 Select the host in the inventory.
3 Click the Manage tab.
4 Select Settings.
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.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup
VMware, Inc. 203