Sysprep has to be extracted and run from a folder. you may be able to extract them then burn them to a CD, and then run some command line tools to have the files written elsewhere, but sysprep is very small.
3i is the same as 3.5, it just doesn't have a console, and ALL commands are from the RCLI (remote command line). The sysprep can be on the VC instance, and then you can configure your VM's centrally, so you don't have to copy the sysprep to each VM.
ESX Server 3i vs. ESX Server 3
Both ESX Server and ESX Server 3i support the entire suite of VMware Infrastructure 3 products, features and solutions, and you can use ESX Server 3 and ESX Server 3i side-by-side in your virtual infrastructure. Both provide industry-leading performance and scalability; the difference resides in the architecture and the operational management of ESX Server 3i.
Management Functionality
By removing the Service Console, ESX Server 3i completes an ongoing trend of migrating management functionality from this local command line interface to remote management tools. The table below provides a side-by-side comparison of management approaches taken by ESX Server and ESX Server 3i:
ESX Server 3 uses the Service Console for: | ESX Server 3i leverages: |
|---|
Executing custom scripts | Remote Command Line Interface (Remote CLI) |
Hardware monitoring agents | Industry-standard monitoring protocols such as agent-free management through CIM |
Backup or management agents | ISV solutions that leverage standard interfaces, the VI API and VMware Consolidated Backup |
