ESXI Boot loader (Grub) in a USB disk

[NunoMarques]

Hello,

   I have a HP Gen8 Microserver in which i installed EXSI 6.5 in a SSD (on the ODD).

   Everything went fine until i put the data disks on the bays of the server - it stop booting from the SSD (i configured AHCI mode for SATA).

   I wanted to know if there's any possibility to install the ESXI BootLoader on a USB disk so that the boot is made in the USB and the ESXI "is called" to run on the SSD?

   Don't know if i made my point clear...

   Thank you in advance for any help you can give!

    (The alternative to this process is to install ESXI directly on the USB disk, but i'm not sure if it's good for performance...)

   Best regards,

           Nuno Marques

[vembutech1]

Why boot loader alone ? Why can't you install ESXi directly on to the USB disk. Even a 4GB pen drive is enough to hold the ESXi OS.

In this way you can free up more space for your datastore.

[NunoMarques]

Yes, i know that is a possibility, but i fear that using a usb i'll loose performance.

Other aspect is using a USB pen disk for long period of time with many read/writes...

Do you think that these two aspects are not a concern?

Meanwhile, as i have all system working well in the SSD, i thought using the USB with Grub could be the easiest way to solve the problem.

Thank you and best regards,

      Nuno

[vembutech1]

No, there is no performance degradation on USB disk running. Infact, all the modules are loaded into the memory once ESXi boots up, and there is no read/write operation from/to USB disk. Only your SSD disk can be read / write operation after boot.

[NunoMarques]

Ok!

In that case i think i'm going for a fresh USB installation.

Many thanks!

Best regards,

    Nuno