8.0
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
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.
Prepare Your System for vSphere Auto Deploy
Before you can PXE boot an ESXi host with vSphere Auto Deploy, you must install prerequisite
software and set up the DHCP and TFTP servers that vSphere Auto Deploy interacts with.
If you want to manage vSphere Auto Deploy with PowerCLI cmdlets, see
Set Up vSphere Auto
Deploy and Provision Hosts with vSphere PowerCLI
.
Prerequisites
n Verify that the hosts that you plan to provision with vSphere Auto Deploy meet the hardware
requirements for ESXi. See ESXi Hardware Requirements.
n Verify that the ESXi hosts have network connectivity to vCenter Server and that all port
requirements are met. See
vCenter Server Upgrade
.
n Verify that you have a TFTP server and a DHCP server in your environment to send files and
assign network addresses to the ESXi hosts that Auto Deploy provisions. See Install the TFTP
Server and Prepare the DHCP Server for vSphere Auto Deploy Provisioning.
n Verify that the ESXi hosts have network connectivity to DHCP, TFTP, and vSphere Auto
Deploy servers.
n If you want to use VLANs in your vSphere Auto Deploy environment, you must set up the end
to end networking properly. When the host is PXE booting, the firmware driver must be set
up to tag the frames with proper VLAN IDs. You must do this set up manually by making the
correct changes in the UEFI/BIOS interface. You must also correctly configure the ESXi port
groups with the correct VLAN IDs. Ask your network administrator how VLAN IDs are used in
your environment.
n Verify that you have enough storage for the vSphere Auto Deploy repository. The vSphere
Auto Deploy server uses the repository to store data it needs, including the rules and rule sets
you create and the VIBs and image profiles that you specify in your rules.
Best practice is to allocate 2 GB to have enough room for four image profiles and some extra
space. Each image profile requires approximately 400 MB. Determine how much space to
reserve for the vSphere Auto Deploy repository by considering how many image profiles you
expect to use.
n Obtain administrative privileges to the DHCP server that manages the network segment you
want to boot from. You can use a DHCP server already in your environment, or install a
DHCP server. For your vSphere Auto Deploy setup, replace the gpxelinux.0 filename with
snponly64.efi.vmw-hardwired for UEFI or undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired for BIOS. For
more information on DHCP configurations, see Sample DHCP Configurations.
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup
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