Is there a way to install ESXi without network card?

[kendzi87]

I am trying to install (for validation purpose) ESXi on platform where network adapter is not visible for installer (there are no drivers for network card and I cannot add different card).

Is there a way to turn off network card check and proceed with installation?

[daphnissov]

Just out of curiosity, why would you want to validate an ESXi install on a platform where there are no NICs and there aren't going to be any? What usefulness would ESXi provide you in that case? To directly answer your question, I do not know of a switch that can disable this check at installation time.

[kendzi87]

I am validating one of the storage driver, so I am interested in information about disks that are detected during installation.There is NIC but there are no vmware drives yet but I don't want to wait for them.

[a_p_]

What you may do is to check whether you can find the driver for the network adapter at https://vibsdepot.v-front.de/wiki/index.php/Welcome, and create a customized installation image using either Image Builder, or the PowerCLI script provided on the mentioned site.

André

[kendzi87]

I already think of that but, as I write earlier "there are no drivers for network card and I cannot add different card"

[a_p_]

In this case, I'm afraid that you are out of luck. At least with a "direct" installation.

What you may try to do, is to install ESXi on another system (install to USB-Device or SD-Card), and then try to boot the host from this device. Not sure whether it will work, but maybe worth a try!?

André

[kendzi87]

Yes, I did that and it is possible to install ESXi on medium (SSD, HDD, USB or SD-Card) and move it to another system.

But in my case I need to do perform "direct" installation.