Hey Osburn,
I hear you on the AutoDeploy struggles. I have always been interested in the solution from it's inception but in the end, I always ended up frustrated and disappointed due to the technical challenges and limitations it has. You're also right about the time spent in troubleshooting it. Honestly, I wouldn't feel safe with it in a production environment at this point.
In regards to remote installations, what has worked well for me at this point is relying on a kickstart script for my initial config and HTTP booting the hosts as long as you have a server that supports UEFI boot mode. Under the UEFI HTTP boot settings/Network Settings, you should be able to configure which NIC you want to use for the initial boot. You should also be able to specify if you want to use a static or DHCP IP for your IP settings.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with how to setup a kickstart environment but if you need help in this area then let me know. Basically, you need to centralize your ESXi custom ISO and configure a web server of your choice. The web server will be used for the HTTP URI or KS destination. I'm using Abyss Web Server as it is simple and light weight.
#This is the UFEI BIOS method in the BIOS/Network settings
http://x.x.x.x/ESXi-Dell-8.0-x64/efi/boot/bootx64.efi --This provides the initial boot instructions.
#This is the CLI method if you don't care for the HTTP boot. You would kick off the ESXi install and press shift + O #Here I am specifying which vmnic and protocol to use to boot.
netdevice=vmnic3 bootproto=dhcp ks=http://x.x.x.x/Kickstart/kickstart.cfg
#KB on the above instructions.
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.esxi.upgrade.doc/GUID-A33C4CAB-18EE-4C8C-A5...
Let me know...
