Create bootable usb for esxi 5

[maxpk2000]

Does anyone know how to make a bootable usb key for esxi 5? It was easily done in 4.1 using winimage and restoring the image.dd file but this doesnt seem to be possible in esxi5.

[Troy_Clavell]

Hello and welcome to the Forums.  Your thread has been move from  Community Website Help to VMware ESXi 5

[DSTAVERT]

The ESXi installer will install directly to a USB flash drive as it did in 4 and 4.1 No need to use dd.

[continuum]

I am working on a way to do this

I found that it is not a trivial task at least for me - using GPT partitioning on a USB-stick is new stuff for me.

By now I learned that it is next to impossible when you use a XP or 2003 admin host but Win7 should work ...

For now the easy workaround is to use VMware Workstation and install to a stick insaide a VM

[Linjo]

I agree with continuum, use workstation or player to create the usb-key, have done it many times already.

// Linjo

[AndreTheGiant]

See in the installation guide page 14:

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.install.doc_50/GUID-33C3E7D5-20D0-4F84-B2...

[continuum]

Hi Andre
that does not answer the original question

creating a USB-stick for installation is way easier - you only need one partition , dont need the vmcore filesystem , dont need different bootbanks and so on

[celavey]

is this possible? creating a bootable USB for ESXi 5? if you need to partition a part of your flash drive, how much file size should you need to do it successfully?

[mirko_josipovic]

Hi all

i had esxi4 on usb and made upgrade to 5 thru downloaded iso burned on cd

after upgrade i had problems with missing tools.iso so tried reinstalling as USB drive is 1GB

i have problems booting new install, on screen i just have "GRUB" on machine stops

installer found USB key and warns me about date and repartitioning so that looks ok

can we install directly on USB or i have to prepare USB for installation?

regards

Mirko    

[mirko_josipovic]

Hi

just watched video on vladan.fr with installation esx5 on usb, he dont have any problems or extra steps needed for install

I tried with another 4GB USB but no luck (same GRUB stop)

mine machine is Lenovo TS200 and it has UEFI Bios (not sure is that important)

Its configured with one SATA on M1015 raid and it has internal DVD

regards

Mirko

[continuum]

the upgraded stick has MBR partitions
a fresh install has GPT partitions which maybe necessary for EFI

[mirko_josipovic]

Hi

yes, i tried new install (with GPT)

also noticed that when i unplug SATA disk from RAID controller ESXi boots fine

so there must be partition numbering problem

thanks

[maxpk2000]

Thanks everyone for their responses.

I dont think though I have been clear enough. What I want to do is actually create ESXi Embedded. So that all I have to do is plug and play. I have a lot of servers and this is easier and quicker to deploy. I dont want to have to spend time installing each one individually although I know it doesnt take long and it is pretty much unattended... I just have found in the past it is easier to have these created so I can deploy in an instant.

Up to now I have been able to extract the image.dd file and using WinImage I have been able to create an ESXi Embedded USB stick in less than a few minutes. With VSphere 5 things seem to have changed... the files are different and I was wondering if anyone knew how to create ESXi Embedded USB sticks.

[continuum]

very easy - create them inside a Workstation VM

I am not aware that another procedure is documented anywhere yet

[svaradha]

Hi. It's very easy and I have made a step-by-step guide on how to do this on my blog.

-> http://www.satheesh.net/2011/08/29/how-to-make-a-bootable-vmware-vsphere-5-usb-installation-media/

Good luck!

PS! Please vote if you think this post helped you out...

[continuum]

you missed the point
we are NOT discussing how to create a ESXi 5 install-boot-stick - thats not a problem - just create a big fat partition, install syslinux and copy the contents of the CD into the root of the partition - done

we are trying to create a USB-stick to actually run ESXi 5 without using the vmware-installer

[svaradha]

Yes, you are right. I totally missed the point. Read through the post again and I am sorry. Should I delete my post maybe or let it stay if in fact someone else took it as I did? Again, sorry for the confusion.

[continuum]

no need to apologize - your link to unetbootin may help some folks

[continuum]

update:
I found a way - perfect for my needs - but not exactly what was originally wanted.

For production use it is not suitable as I have to remove the alternate bootbanks and the vmcore partition to make it work..

[DeeSaR]

I've found a way very similar to the solution for v4.x (with the imagedd), except you will have to create your usb-stick-image yourself instead of extracting it from the installation media.

You will have to do a normal installation of ESXi v5.0.0 (on hardware or workstation-virtual machine) only one time to real, physical usb-stick.

IMPORTANT: Dont boot the server/VM after the installation from the newly installed usb-stick and do NO CONFIGURATIONS like vswitches or portgroups at all!!! (othewise you will eventually copy virtual MAC addresses created and thats no good idea)

Then use Winimage to create an "Virtual Harddisk image from physical drive" of your usb-stick.

You can use the option "Create Dynamically Expanding Virtual Hard Disk" (the resulting image will then be only 1.5 GB instead 4 GB if you used an 4 GB usb-stick)

Winimage will NOT open the created image after creation because it contains non-NTFS/FAT Partitions and will report an error, but this is no problem because the image is o.k. and Winimage will restore it without errors to another usb-stick!

With this image you will be able to "Restore Virtual Harddisk image on physical drive" and deploy additional usb-sticks within 5 minutes compared with 15 to 20 minutes for an normal installation, like the solution with the imagedd with v4.x.

Tested with Winimage v8.50, (you will have to use the licensed professional version for the feature "Create Virtual Harddisk image from physical drive" to work) I think there are other (free) imaging tools like DD on linux or Windows 7 / W2K8R2 Powershell scripts capable of cloning usb-partitions but you have to try, for me Winimage is the easiest solution.

I hope this will help.