installing O.S in VM form USB

Osaidaz · ‎06-25-2018

Hello

so I have installed my esxi in a virtual machine using Workstation, then I have created a virtual machine, I'm trying to install O.S in the VM from a USB , how can i do that? the only way I know is to mount an ISO in your VM's CD/DVD then select the ISO file from the datastore, I don't want to put my ISO in the datastore , i want to install it from the us

thanks for helping

bluefirestorm · ‎06-25-2018

Assuming you are connecting to the ESXi VM from Workstation Pro 12.x/14.x, you should be able to "Power on to Firmware".

Prerequisites are: the VM needs to be created with EFI/UEFI (not BIOS) and you need to add a USB controller to it.

After you select "Power on to Firmware" of the VM inside the ESXi VM; connect the bootable USB to the VM. Enter setup and "Configure boot options" and "Add boot option" and add the USB device. You will see a bunch of PCI gibberish and you should just add the one with USB. At the moment I don't have patience/time to type all the details for you.

I was able to boot from a bootable Ubuntu 16.04 USB from a VM inside a ESXi 6.5 (which is a VM in Workstation Pro 12.5.9) with the method that I just described above.