Would like to know the steps to create a ESX install CD that will not be detecting the SAN .
ESX is loading drivers for the HBA's in your system. That's what it's designed to do. If you dont' want to detect the SAN then you should read the manual. It specifically states to UNPLUG these devices from your system during install, so that ESX will not try to install or detect drives. This is best practice. Read your manual.
Like rparker said, when you install/re-install/upgrade your ESX hosts, you should always unplug your HBA's during the install. Once it is complete you can plug them back in. What happens is during the setup all the drivers are loaded and it scans for hard drive space. Sometimes it picks up your san as available storage, and there have been cases where people don't realize that is there SAN and end up formatting it while they have all their VM's on it...
So with that being said you should just 1) unplug your hba's 2) install esx from the ISO file 3) plug your HBA's back 4) configure your host and off you go... much easier than trying to modify the drivers/esx iso file (and it is best practice)
Kyle
Hello,
You can write a pxeboot %pre script that will remove the HBA drivers before installing the OS.
Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
SearchVMware Blog: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/
Blue Gears Blogs - http://www.itworld.com/ and http://www.networkworld.com/community/haletky
As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization
Like rparker said, when you install/re-install/upgrade your ESX hosts, you should always unplug your HBA's during the install. Once it is complete you can plug them back in. What happens is during the setup all the drivers are loaded and it scans for hard drive space. Sometimes it picks up your san as available storage, and there have been cases where people don't realize that is there SAN and end up formatting it while they have all their VM's on it...
So with that being said you should just 1) unplug your hba's 2) install esx from the ISO file 3) plug your HBA's back 4) configure your host and off you go... much easier than trying to modify the drivers/esx iso file (and it is best practice)
Kyle
This doesn't work for everyone especially when you don't have physical access to the server in question. Sometimes removing the SAN drivers from the install media is the best option. Here is a script that will do that for you but needs to be modified for current builds of ESX.
Fair enough, I only manage hosts which I'm physically able to touch so I forget about those that have to manage and do that type of work remotely.
Thanks for the information
Kyle
