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Bahmas
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi boot from a USB key ?

Dear All,

I'm wondering if the fact we use a ESXi installed on a USB key is supported for a production environment ? Or should we still have local disks to install it ?

Thank you in advance Smiley Happy

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6 Replies
nick_couchman
Immortal
Immortal

I don't think ESXi self-installed on a USB stick is a supported configuration. It's not listed as supported in the HCL, so if you're putting this into a critical, production environment I'd go ahead and purchase local disks and install ESXi on SATA/SAS/SCSI drives, instead.

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Bahmas
Contributor
Contributor

Ok thank you for your quick and clear answer Smiley Happy

We'll buy two local disks for ESXi.... It's too bad to loose all the rest of disk space...

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wpatton
Expert
Expert

Another option is to use Boot LUNs off a SAN array if you don't want to use internal storage.

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BFREED
Contributor
Contributor

I would like to hear more from VMware about this, and why it’s not supported (if it’s not)?

We are using boot from USB for nearly a dozen production esxi 3.5.0 u4 servers, it’s a great way to go.

One nice thing is that it obfuscates the server hardware from the esxi OS, if the server fails we can just move the USB key and gain access to the vmdk files and the guests are back online. I agree, it’s a shame to have to install local disks for a few hundred bucks when you only need a gig. In my opinion the boot from USB servers are working fine in a production environment. I did try several tests including pulling the key while the server was running (someone might actually do that). There was no effect on the running guests, but I did have to reconfigure the key as it lost the configuration after the hot-pull.

I am eager to investigate the vicfg-cfgbackup.pl tool to backup and restore the configurations. http://communities.vmware.com/thread/212557

VMware – any official stance on Boot from USB?

If not recommended for production, any reasons not to do it from past experience?

Thanks!

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Josh26
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

vSphere installs off the CD directly onto a USB stick. It's definitely their push for the future.

As far as "recommended" goes, many people will argue with me, but when you had a USB stick fail - which happens - and you have no redundancy, since there's no "USB stick RAID", you'll regret it.

I couldn't care if I could build a new USB stick in half an hour when it takes a late night trip to the data center to do it, and "some" downtime is still less acceptable then "none".

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

USB stick for local and if you want, PXE boot for redundancy. Most new servers can be ordered with ESXi installed on either internal USB stick or I think HP is starting to use internal SD cards.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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