ESXi 5.5 boot disk ISO

[bwgreen99]

Hello,

I have ESXi 5.5.0 Update 2 running on a Dell R620 server, and vCenter running on Windows 2K8 64-bit server.  What I am looking to do next is to create a bootable ISO image of the ESXi boot disk.  I know there are several utilities in Windows that can do this - does anyone know how this can be done to an ESXi Server?

Thanks,

Brian

[brunofernandez1]

you want to do a bootable iso image of the actual esxi installation/configuration?

[bwgreen99]

That's it exactly.  Why - as a recovery plan, if the ESXi installation fails, change the boot order using the out-of-band management of the server then reboot and rescan to add the VMs then we should be abel to get back online fast while a tech is trying to get onsite (could take hours).

[brunofernandez1]

never tried but have a look on this:

Clone ESXi Installations on SD Cards or USB Flash Drives | Virten.net

[cykVM]

As far as I know it's not possible to run ESXi from a CD. What you could do is install ESXi to a USB thumbdrive, copy over the working (host) configuration and keep that at a safe place.

See: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200478...

[bwgreen99]

What we are hoping to do is run it (typically) from a hard disk, but in the case of OS failure run it from an SD card.

[brunofernandez1]

so my link could help you 😉

[bwgreen99]

Trying things out right now!  One question (as I am not a dd wizard) - is there a way to remove blank space so that the img file reflect the size of the OS?

Thanks!

[brunofernandez1]

with conv=sparse it should be possible...

but don't know if esxi supports this option...

[bwgreen99]

Unfortunately (for me) it doesn't seem so.