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
Storage Systems
For a list of supported storage systems, see the
VMware Compatibility Guide
at http://
www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility. Starting with ESXi 8.0, you cannot use software
adapters for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), only hardware FCoE adapters.
ESXi Booting Requirements
In vSphere 8.0, support for legacy BIOS is limited and booting ESXi hosts from the Unified
Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is recommended. With UEFI, you can boot systems from
hard drives, CD-ROM drives, or USB media. vSphere Auto Deploy supports network booting
and provisioning of ESXi hosts with UEFI. If your system has supported data processing units
(DPU), you can only use UEFI to install and boot ESXi on the DPUs. For more information on
VMware plans to deprecate support for legacy BIOS in server platforms, see Knowledge Base
article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/84233.
ESXi can boot from a disk larger than 2 TB if the system firmware and the firmware on any add-in
card that you are using support it. See the vendor documentation.
Storage Requirements for ESXi 8.0 Installation or Upgrade
For best performance of an ESXi 8.0 installation, use a persistent storage device that is a minimum
of 32 GB for boot devices. Upgrading to ESXi 8.0 requires a boot device that is a minimum of
8 GB. When booting from a local disk, SAN or iSCSI LUN, at least a 32 GB disk is required to
allow for the creation of system storage volumes, which include a boot partition, boot banks, and
a VMFS-L based ESX-OSData volume. The ESX-OSData volume takes on the role of the legacy /
scratch partition, locker partition for VMware Tools, and core dump destination.
Note In ESXi 8.0, the ESX-OSData volume is considered a unified partition and the separate
components, such as /scratch and VMware Tools, are consolidated into a single persistent
OSDATA partition.
Other options for best performance of an ESXi 8.0 installation are the following:
n A local disk of 128 GB or larger for optimal support of ESX-OSData. The disk contains the boot
partition, ESX-OSData volume and a VMFS datastore.
n A device that supports the minimum of 128 terabytes written (TBW).
n A device that delivers at least 100 MB/s of sequential write speed.
n To provide resiliency in case of device failure, a RAID 1 mirrored device is recommended.
Note GB units are 2^30 bytes or 1024*1024*1024 byte multiples.
Legacy SD and USB devices are supported with the following limitations:
n SD and USB devices are supported for boot bank partitions. The use of SD and USB devices
for storing ESX-OSData partitions is being deprecated and best practice is to provide a
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup
VMware, Inc. 18