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pbraren
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Rufus (free utility) takes 2 minutes to create a bootable USB flash drive for ESXi installation boot source that becomes the install target, even for 5.5

Just an FYI, one of those rare Windows open source gems that are getting increasingly hard to find on the web these days, amidst a see of downloader payloads.

I've found Rufus to be very handy for quick creation of USB flash drive you can boot from, then install to, for ESXi, no command line stuff to memorize needed, and very quick:

TinkerTry.com/rufus-takes-2-minutes-to-create-a-bootable-usb-flash-drive-for-esxi-installation

works great with ESXi 5.5 too:

TinkerTry.com/download-vsphere-5-lab

and when done with that flash drive and you want to use it for something else (but normal reformatting doesn't work), it handles that too, even on Windows 8.1:

TinkerTry.com/rufus-lets-you-quickly-and-easily-reformat-an-esxi-usb-flash-drive-back-to-full-capaci...

Particularly handy for folks getting started who shy away from VMware's Linux procedure:

Format a USB Flash Drive to Boot the ESXi Installation or Upgrade

vSphere 5.5 Documentation Center

or potentially dangerous Windows diskpart commands. Really just fast and useful for pretty much everybody.

Thoughts/opinions?

TinkerTry.com
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pbraren
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Just a follow-up on my comment about multiple VIB injection into the ISO that you use as the source file for Rufus (a few months back, seen above):

Here's the article that came out of that topic (yes, it works!):

TinkerTry.com/use-esxi-customizer-gui-to-inject-multiple-driver-vibs-into-your-esxi-installer-iso

TinkerTry.com

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Andrei_I
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I am installing now Esxi 5.5 on my lab running on HP Microserver Gen8.

The installation is at 36% but will post in a few moments if this is finishing successfully.

The bootable stick was created with Rufus v1.4.1.

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Andrei_I
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Well, it seems like the bootable stick made with Rufus v1.4.1 is working fine.

Finished the installation of Vmware Esxi 5.5.

As a personal note, the image for Esxi 5.5 on a 4GB stick was faster than 2 minutes.

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pbraren
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Excellent, thank you for the feedback!

You're right, newer/faster USB drives are under a minute.

By the way, working on quick and easy ways to inject multiple VIB (driver bundles) into my ESXi 5.5 ISO, it's going well (using ESXi Customer and Rufus), stay tuned!

-Paul Braren, TinkerTry.com

TinkerTry.com
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continuum
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I agree - Rufus is nice.
I use it to create ESXi Live USB-sticks to run ESXi without any installation - right from the stick


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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grasshopper
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Excellent!  Thanks for sharing!

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Andrei_I
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Smiley Happy just found out now the the NIC from HP Microserver Gen8 is not supported directly in the Esxi 5.5 image. So I will have to create a custom image for the bootable Esxi installer. At least the bootable task will be finished fast with Rufus but the installation will take some time to complete as I am using a USB 2.0 stick. It's a test lab so no need to hurry .

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nolanj
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Installed esxi5.5 on UCS C200 M2 and worked like a champ!

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SatyS
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Thanks for sharing..This will surely help a lot of ppl and also save time.!!

-SatyS

If you find this useful,please mark the answer as correct/helpful Regards, SatyS http://myvirtuallearning.wordpress.com/
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pbraren
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Just a follow-up on my comment about multiple VIB injection into the ISO that you use as the source file for Rufus (a few months back, seen above):

Here's the article that came out of that topic (yes, it works!):

TinkerTry.com/use-esxi-customizer-gui-to-inject-multiple-driver-vibs-into-your-esxi-installer-iso

TinkerTry.com
predetec
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Great post pbaren - just tested injecting a vib and apart from having to manually download the menu.c32 file to \rufus_files\syslinux-4.07\ it worked flawlessly (our proxy was blocking the automatic download of the menu.c32 file through rufus).

pbraren
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Ah, thank you predetec, and nice workaround! I'm sure it'll help others that run into the same issue.

TinkerTry.com
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lvaibhavt
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Hi,

I am not sure which step I am missing. Can you please assist me here

I am using VMware Workstation 11. I have esxi 6.0 iso.

I created a vm on workstation and mounted iso and usb drive. There is no HDD on the VM.

I see the usb drive and install esxi 6.0 on it.

I disconnected the iso file and now when I try to boo the Workstation vm from the usb drive -- it will not boot.

I created the bootable usb from rufus 2.0 as you have mentioned but no go.

Any suggestion

thanks

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pbraren
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Ah, I should have been clearer, Rufus is a tool that is handy for prepping a USB drive for installing the hypervisor on bare metal, a physical server.  In other words, inserting the USB key (that Rufus created on a Windows workstation), straight into the actual server to boot the hypervisor installer from.

Hope this clarifies?

TinkerTry.com
BenLiebowitz
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I've also used Rufus in the past.  It makes it VERY EASY!

Ben Liebowitz, VCP vExpert 2015, 2016, & 2017 If you found my post helpful, please mark it as helpful or answered to award points.
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MBrownWFP
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Another happy Rufus user here. Been using it for the past couple of years with great success.

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justingoldberg
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Does Rufus work for ESXi 6?

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pbraren
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Happy to say it still works just great! I had put some comments confirming it still works at the beginning of the existing article:

TinkerTry.com/rufus-takes-2-minutes-to-create-a-bootable-usb-flash-drive-for-esxi-installation

and am working on new article along with video of the the entire build your own vSphere 6.0 lab, complete with full ESXi and vSphere hostnames (not IPs).

TinkerTry.com
edegrave
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Worked fine on ESXi 6 for me, with the exception that I'm using a HP custom image and at boot the loader stated: 'menu.c32: not a com32r image'. Rufus did mention an older file being used (didn't write it down, sorry) but fix was easy: just press TAB when the error shows and select install. Sweet as ever!

Replacing the file mentioned by Rufus is probably the clean way to boot without any problems at all...

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admin
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Well said edegrave... Smiley Happy

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