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Table Of Contents
- VMware ESXi Installation and Setup
- Contents
- About VMware ESXi Installation and Setup
- Introduction to vSphere Installation and Setup
- Introducing VMware vSphere Distributed Services Engine and Networking Acceleration by Using DPUs
- Installing and Setting Up ESXi
- ESXi Requirements
- Preparing for Installing ESXi
- Customizing Installations with vSphere ESXi Image Builder
- How the vSphere ESXi Image Builder Works
- Structure of ImageProfile, SoftwarePackage, and ImageProfileDiff Objects
- Install Prerequisite Software and Configure vSphere ESXi Image Builder
- Using VMware.Image Builder Cmdlets
- ESXi Image Profile Tasks
- Add a Software Depot
- Import a Software Depot
- Clone an Image Profile
- Create an Image Profile
- Edit an Image Profile
- Compare Image Profiles
- Move an Image Profile to a Different Software Depot
- Export an Image Profile to ISO or Offline Bundle ZIP
- Regenerate an Image Profile
- Preserve Image Profiles Across Sessions with PowerCLI Cmdlets
- Compare VIBs with PowerCLI Cmdlets
- vSphere ESXi Image Builder Workflows with PowerCLI Cmdlets
- Installing ESXi
- Installing ESXi Interactively
- Installing ESXi by Using a Script
- How to Boot an ESXi Host from a Network Device
- Installing ESXi Using vSphere Auto Deploy
- Understanding vSphere Auto Deploy
- Install and Configure vSphere Auto Deploy
- How vSphere Auto Deploy Works with PowerCLI
- Managing vSphere Auto Deploy with PowerCLI Cmdlets
- Overview of the vSphere Auto Deploy Process by Using PowerCLI
- Using vSphere Auto Deploy 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
- vSphere Auto Deploy Tasks by Using the vSphere Client
- Managing vSphere Auto Deploy with the vSphere Client
- Create a Deploy Rule
- Clone a Deploy Rule
- Edit 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
- Add a Host to a Cluster That Uses a Single Image
- Add a Host to a Cluster That Manages ESXi Configuration at a Cluster Level
- Working with Script Bundles
- Download vSphere Auto Deploy Logs
- Start, Stop, or Restart the vSphere Auto Deploy Service
- Provision and Reprovision ESXi Hosts with vSphere Auto Deploy
- Using vSphere Auto Deploy for Stateless Caching and Stateful Installs
- Configure a Host Profile to Use Stateless Caching
- Configure a Host Profile to Enable Stateful Installs
- Setting Up a vSphere Auto Deploy Reference Host
- Configure an ESXi Dump Collector
- Configure Syslog from the Host Profiles Feature in the vSphere Client
- Enable NTP Client on a Reference Host in the vSphere Client
- Configure Networking for Your vSphere Auto Deploy Host in the vSphere Client
- Configure a Reference Host for Auto-Partitioning
- Converting Stateless Hosts to Stateful Hosts
- vSphere Auto Deploy Best Practices and Security Consideration
- Scenario to Set Up vSphere Auto Deploy and Provision Hosts with vSphere PowerCLI
- 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 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 Rule Takes Long to Complete
- 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
- Initial ESXi Configuration
- ESXi Autoconfiguration
- Managing ESXi Remotely
- About the Direct Console ESXi Interface
- Configure the Keyboard Layout for the Direct Console
- Create a Security Banner for the Direct Console
- Redirecting the Direct Console to a Serial Port
- Redirect the Direct Console to a Serial Port by Setting the Boot Options Manually
- Redirect the Direct Console to a Serial Port in a Host Deployed with Auto Deploy
- 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
- 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
- Configure IP Settings from the Direct Console
- Configure IP Settings from the vSphere Client
- Configuring DNS for ESXi
- Configure DNS Settings from the Direct Console
- Configure DNS Suffixes
- 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
- Configuring System Logging
- Set the Host Image Profile Acceptance Level
- Remove All Custom Packages on ESXi
- Deactivate Support for Non-ASCII Characters in Virtual Machine File and Directory Names
- Reset the System Configuration
- Initial ESXi Configuration
- After You Install and Set Up ESXi
- Troubleshooting ESXi Booting
- Decommission an ESXi Host
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.0";
} else {
# Load the undionly configuration of iPXE as initial bootloader
filename = "undionly.kpxe";
}
}
When a machine attempts to PXE boot, the DHCP server provides an IP address and the location
of the undionly.kpxe or snponly.efi binary file on the TFTP server. In the legacy BIOS case,
iPXE then asks the DHCP server for the next file to load, and the server returns pxelinux.0 as the
filename. In the UEFI case, iPXE then asks the DHCP server for the next file to load, and this time
the server returns mboot.efi as the filename. In both cases, iPXE is resident and the system has
HTTP capability. As a result the system can load additional files from an HTTP server.
Example of Booting Using iPXE and HTTP with IPv6
This example shows how to configure an ISC DHCPv6 server to boot ESXi by loading iPXE from a
TFTP server at IPv6 address xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx.
#
# ISC DHCPv6 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.
#
allow booting;
allow bootp;
option dhcp6.bootfile-url code 59 = string;
if exists user-class and option user-class = "iPXE" {
# Instruct iPXE to load mboot.efi as secondary bootloader
option dhcp6.bootfile-url "tftp://[xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx]/mboot.efi";
} else {
# Load the snponly.efi configuration of iPXE as initial bootloader
option dhcp6.bootfile-url "tftp://[xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx]/snponly.efi";
}
When a machine attempts to PXE boot, the DHCP server provides an IP address and the location
of the snponly.efi (iPXE) binary file on the TFTP server. iPXE then asks the DHCP server for
the next file to load, and this time the server returns mboot.efi as the filename. iPXE is resident
and the system has HTTP capability. As a result the system can load additional files from an HTTP
server.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup
VMware, Inc. 110