VMware ESXi Installation And Setup VMware. VSphere 6.7 67 IAG EN

User Manual: Pdf ESXI - 6.7 - Installation and Setup User Guide for VMware ESXI Software, Free Instruction Manual

Open the PDF directly: View PDF .
Page Count: 214 [warning: Documents this large are best viewed by clicking the View PDF Link!]

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware ESXi Installation

and Setup

17 APR 2018

VMware vSphere 6.7

VMware ESXi 6.7

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 2

You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at:

https://docs.vmware.com/

If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to

docfeedback@vmware.com

VMware, Inc.

3401 Hillview Ave.

Palo Alto, CA 94304

www.vmware.com

Contents

1About VMware ESXi Installation and Setup 4

2Introduction to vSphere Installation and Setup 5

3Overview of the vSphere Installation and Setup Process 6

4About ESXi Evaluation and Licensed Modes 9

5Installing and Setting Up ESXi 10

ESXi Requirements 10

Preparing for Installing ESXi 19

Installing ESXi 70

Setting Up ESXi 188

After You Install and Set Up ESXi 208

6Troubleshooting ESXi Booting 212

Host Stops Unexpectedly at Bootup When Sharing a Boot Disk with Another Host 212

Host Fails to Boot After You Install ESXi in UEFI Mode 213

7Decommission an ESXi Host 214

VMware, Inc. 3

About VMware ESXi Installation

and Setup 1

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup describes how to install and configure VMware ESXi™.

Intended Audience

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup is intended for experienced administrators who want to install and

configure ESXi.

This information is written for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with

virtual machine technology and data center operations. The information about using the Image Builder

and VMware vSphere® Auto Deploy™ is written for administrators who have experience with Microsoft

PowerShell and VMware vSphere® PowerCLI™.

vSphere Web Client and vSphere Client

Task instructions in this guide are based on the vSphere Web Client. You can also perform most of the

tasks in this guide by using the new vSphere Client. The new vSphere Client user interface terminology,

topology, and workflow are closely aligned with the same aspects and elements of the

vSphere Web Client user interface. You can apply the vSphere Web Client instructions to the new

vSphere Client unless otherwise instructed.

Note In vSphere 6.7, most of the vSphere Web Client functionality is implemented in the vSphere Client.

For an up-to-date list of the unsupported functionality, see Functionality Updates for the vSphere Client.

VMware Technical Publications Glossary

VMware Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. For

definitions of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

VMware, Inc. 4

Introduction to vSphere

Installation and Setup 2

vSphere 6.7 provides various options for installation and setup. To ensure a successful vSphere

deployment, understand the installation and setup options, and the sequence of tasks.

The two core components of vSphere are ESXi and vCenter Server. ESXi is the virtualization platform on

which you can create and run virtual machines and virtual appliances. vCenter Server is a service that

acts as a central administrator for ESXi hosts connected in a network. vCenter Server lets you pool and

manage the resources of multiple hosts.

You can install vCenter Server on a Windows virtual machine or physical server, or deploy the

vCenter Server Appliance. The vCenter Server Appliance is a preconfigured Linux-based virtual machine

optimized for running vCenter Server and the vCenter Server components. You can deploy the

vCenter Server Appliance on ESXi hosts 6.0 or later, or on vCenter Server instances 6.0 or later.

Starting with vSphere 6.0, all prerequisite services for running vCenter Server and the vCenter Server

components are bundled in the VMware Platform Services Controller™. You can deploy vCenter Server

with an embedded or external Platform Services Controller, but you must always install or deploy the

Platform Services Controller before installing or deploying vCenter Server.

For detailed information about the vCenter Server installation process, see vCenter Server Installation

and Setup.

VMware, Inc. 5

Overview of the vSphere

Installation and Setup Process 3

vSphere is a sophisticated product with multiple components to install and set up. To ensure a successful

vSphere deployment, understand the sequence of tasks required.

Installing vSphere includes the following tasks:

VMware, Inc. 6

Figure 3‑1. vSphere Installation and Setup Workﬂow

Start the vSphere

installation and setup

End of the vSphere

installation and setup

Small envrionment with one

vCenter Server Instance

Large envrionment with multiple

vCenter Server Instances

Install ESXi

on at least one host

Set up ESXi

Deploy or install vCenter Server

with an embedded Platform

Services Controller

Client to create and organize

your vCenter Server inventory

Client to create and organize

your vCenter Server inventories

Start the vSphere

installation and setup

End of the vSphere

installation and setup

Install ESXi

on at least one host

Set up ESXi

Deploy or install the Platform

Services Controller instances

in a sequence

Deploy or install the vCenter Server

instances and register them with the

external Platform Services

Controller instances

1 Read the vSphere release notes.

2 Install ESXi.

a Verify that your system meets the minimum hardware requirements. See ESXi Requirements.

b Determine the ESXi installation option to use. See Options for Installing ESXi.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 7

c Determine where you want to locate and boot the ESXi installer. See Media Options for Booting

the ESXi Installer. If you are using PXE to boot the installer, verify that your network PXE

infrastructure is properly set up. See PXE Booting the ESXi Installer.

d Create a worksheet with the information you will need when you install ESXi. See Required

Information for ESXi Installation.

e Install ESXi.

nInstalling ESXi Interactively

nInstalling or Upgrading Hosts by Using a Script

Note You can also provision ESXi hosts by using vSphere Auto Deploy, but vSphere Auto

Deploy is installed together with vCenter Server. To provision ESXi hosts by using Auto Deploy,

you must deploy the vCenter Server Appliance or install vCenter Server.

3 Configure the ESXi boot and network settings, the direct console, and other settings. See Setting Up

ESXi and After You Install and Set Up ESXi.

4 Consider setting up a syslog server for remote logging, to ensure sufficient disk storage for log files.

Setting up logging on a remote host is especially important for hosts with limited local storage. See

Required Free Space for System Logging and Configure Syslog on ESXi Hosts.

5 Determine the vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller deployment model that is suitable for

your environment.

6 Deploy or install vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller.

For detailed information, see the vCenter Server Installation and Setup guide.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 8

About ESXi Evaluation and

Licensed Modes 4

You can use evaluation mode to explore the entire set of features for ESXi hosts. The evaluation mode

provides the set of features equal to a vSphere Enterprise Plus license. Before the evaluation mode

expires, you must assign to your hosts a license that supports all the features in use.

For example, in evaluation mode, you can use vSphere vMotion technology, the vSphere HA feature, the

vSphere DRS feature, and other features. If you want to continue using these features, you must assign a

license that supports them.

The installable version of ESXi hosts is always installed in evaluation mode. ESXi Embedded is

preinstalled on an internal storage device by your hardware vendor. It might be in evaluation mode or

prelicensed.

The evaluation period is 60 days and begins when you turn on the ESXi host. At any time during the 60-

day evaluation period, you can convert from licensed mode to evaluation mode. The time available in the

evaluation period is decreased by the time already used.

For example, suppose that you use an ESXi host in evaluation mode for 20 days and then assign a

vSphere Standard Edition license key to the host. If you set the host back in evaluation mode, you can

explore the entire set of features for the host for the remaining evaluation period of 40 days.

For information about managing licensing for ESXi hosts, see the vCenter Server and Host Management

documentation.

VMware, Inc. 9

Installing and Setting Up ESXi 5

You can install and set up ESXi on your physical hardware so that it acts as a platform for virtual

machines.

This chapter includes the following topics:

nESXi Requirements

nPreparing for Installing ESXi

nInstalling ESXi

nSetting Up ESXi

nAfter You Install and Set Up ESXi

ESXi Requirements

To install or upgrade ESXi, your system must meet specific hardware and software requirements.

ESXi Hardware Requirements

Make sure the host meets the minimum hardware configurations supported by ESXi6.7.

Hardware and System Resources

To install or upgrade ESXi, your hardware and system resources must meet the following requirements:

nSupported server platform. For a list of supported platforms, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

nESXi 6.7 requires a host machine with at least two CPU cores.

nESXi 6.7 supports 64-bit x86 processors released after September 2006. This includes a broad range

of multi-core processors. For a complete list of supported processors, see the VMware compatibility

guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

nESXi 6.7 requires the NX/XD bit to be enabled for the CPU in the BIOS.

nESXi 6.7 requires a minimum of 4 GB of physical RAM. It is recommended to provide at least 8 GB of

RAM to run virtual machines in typical production environments.

nTo support 64-bit virtual machines, support for hardware virtualization (Intel VT-x or AMD RVI) must

be enabled on x64 CPUs.

VMware, Inc. 10

nOne or more Gigabit or faster Ethernet controllers. For a list of supported network adapter models,

see the VMware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

nSCSI disk or a local, non-network, RAID LUN with unpartitioned space for the virtual machines.

nFor Serial ATA (SATA), a disk connected through supported SAS controllers or supported on-board

SATA controllers. SATA disks are considered remote, not local. These disks are not used as a scratch

partition by default because they are seen as remote.

Note You cannot connect a SATA CD-ROM device to a virtual machine on an ESXi 6.7 host. To use

the SATA CD-ROM device, you must use IDE emulation mode.

Storage Systems

For a list of supported storage systems, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility. For Software Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), see

Installing and Booting ESXi with Software FCoE.

ESXi Booting Requirements

vSphere 6.7 supports booting ESXi hosts from the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). With

UEFI, you can boot systems from hard drives, CD-ROM drives, or USB media.

Starting with vSphere 6.7, VMware Auto Deploy supports network booting and provisioning of ESXi hosts

with UEFI.

ESXi can boot from a disk larger than 2 TB if the system firmware and the firmware on any add-in card

that you are using support it. See the vendor documentation.

Note Changing the boot type from legacy BIOS to UEFI after you install ESXi 6.7 might cause the host

to fail to boot. In this case, the host displays an error message similar to Not a VMware boot bank.

Changing the host boot type between legacy BIOS and UEFI is not supported after you install ESXi 6.7.

Storage Requirements for ESXi 6.7 Installation or Upgrade

Installing ESXi 6.7 or upgrading to ESXi 6.7 requires a boot device that is a minimum of 1 GB. When

booting from a local disk, SAN or iSCSI LUN, a 5.2-GB disk is required to allow for the creation of the

VMFS volume and a 4-GB scratch partition on the boot device. If a smaller disk or LUN is used, the

installer attempts to allocate a scratch region on a separate local disk. If a local disk cannot be found the

scratch partition, /scratch, is on the ESXi host ramdisk, linked to /tmp/scratch. You can

reconfigure /scratch to use a separate disk or LUN. For best performance and memory optimization, do

not leave /scratch on the ESXi host ramdisk.

To reconfigure /scratch, see Set the Scratch Partition from the vSphere Web Client.

Due to the I/O sensitivity of USB and SD devices, the installer does not create a scratch partition on these

devices. When installing or upgrading on USB or SD devices, the installer attempts to allocate a scratch

region on an available local disk or datastore. If no local disk or datastore is found, /scratch is placed on

the ramdisk. After the installation or upgrade, you should reconfigure /scratch to use a persistent

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 11

datastore. Although a 1GB USB or SD device suffices for a minimal installation, you should use a 4GB or

larger device. The extra space is used for an expanded coredump partition on the USB/SD device. Use a

high-quality USB flash drive of 16 GB or larger so that the extra flash cells can prolong the life of the boot

media, but high-quality drives of 4 GB or larger are sufficient to hold the extended coredump partition.

See Knowledge Base article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2004784.

In Auto Deploy installations, the installer attempts to allocate a scratch region on an available local disk or

datastore. If no local disk or datastore is found, /scratch is placed on ramdisk. You should

reconfigure /scratch to use a persistent datastore following the installation.

For environments that boot from a SAN or use Auto Deploy, you need not allocate a separate LUN for

each ESXi host. You can co-locate the scratch regions for many ESXi hosts onto a single LUN. The

number of hosts assigned to any single LUN should be weighed against the LUN size and the I/O

behavior of the virtual machines.

ESXi 6.7 Installation on M.2 and other Non-USB Low-end Flash Media

Unlike USB flash devices, the ESXi installer creates a VMFS datastore on M.2 and other non-USB low-

end flash media. If you deploy a virtual machine or migrate a virtual machine to this boot device

datastore, the boot device can be worn out quickly depending on the endurance of the flash device and

the characteristics of the workload. Even read-only workloads can cause problems on low-end flash

devices.

Important If you install ESXi on M.2 or other non-USB low-end flash media, delete the VMFS datastore

on the device immediately after installation. See vSphere Storage for more information on removing

VMFS datastores.

Supported Remote Management Server Models and Firmware

Versions

You can use remote management applications to install or upgrade ESXi, or to manage hosts remotely.

Table 5‑1. Supported Remote Management Server Models and Minimum Firmware Versions

Remote Management Server Model Firmware Version Java

Dell DRAC 7 1.30.30 (Build 43) 1.7.0_60-b19

Dell DRAC 6 1.54 (Build 15), 1.70 (Build 21) 1.6.0_24

Dell DRAC 5 1.0, 1.45, 1.51 1.6.0_20,1.6.0_203

Dell DRAC 4 1.75 1.6.0_23

HP ILO 1.81, 1.92 1.6.0_22, 1.6.0_23

HP ILO 2 1.8, 1.81 1.6.0_20, 1.6.0_23

HP ILO 3 1.28 1.7.0_60-b19

HP ILO 4 1.13 1.7.0_60-b19

IBM RSA 2 1.03, 1.2 1.6.0_22

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 12

Recommendations for Enhanced ESXi Performance

To enhance performance, install or upgrade ESXi on a robust system with more RAM than the minimum

required and with multiple physical disks.

For ESXi system requirements, see ESXi Hardware Requirements.

Table 5‑2. Recommendations for Enhanced Performance

System Element Recommendation

RAM ESXi hosts require more RAM than typical servers. Provide at

least 8GB of RAM to take full advantage of ESXi features and

run virtual machines in typical production environments. An ESXi

host must have sufficient RAM to run concurrent virtual

machines. The following examples are provided to help you

calculate the RAM required by the virtual machines running on

the ESXi host.

Operating four virtual machines with Red Hat Enterprise Linux or

Windows XP requires at least 3GB of RAM for baseline

performance. This figure includes approximately 1024MB for the

virtual machines, 256MB minimum for each operating system as

recommended by vendors.

Running these four virtual machines with 512MB RAM requires

that the ESXi host have approximately 4GB RAM, which

includes 2048MB for the virtual machines.

These calculations do not take into account possible memory

savings from using variable overhead memory for each virtual

machine. See vSphere Resource Management.

Dedicated Fast Ethernet adapters for virtual machines Place the management network and virtual machine networks

on different physical network cards. Dedicated Gigabit Ethernet

cards for virtual machines, such as Intel PRO 1000 adapters,

improve throughput to virtual machines with high network traffic.

Disk location Place all data that your virtual machines use on physical disks

allocated specifically to virtual machines. Performance is better

when you do not place your virtual machines on the disk

containing the ESXi boot image. Use physical disks that are

large enough to hold disk images that all the virtual machines

use.

VMFS5 partitioning The ESXi installer creates the initial VMFS volumes on the first

blank local disk found. To add disks or modify the original

configuration, use the vSphere Web Client. This practice

ensures that the starting sectors of partitions are 64K-aligned,

which improves storage performance.

Note For SAS-only environments, the installer might not format

the disks. For some SAS disks, it is not possible to identify

whether the disks are local or remote. After the installation, you

can use the vSphere Web Client to set up VMFS.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 13

Table 5‑2. Recommendations for Enhanced Performance (Continued)

System Element Recommendation

Processors Faster processors improve ESXi performance. For certain

workloads, larger caches improve ESXi performance.

Hardware compatibility Use devices in your server that are supported by ESXi 6.7

drivers. See the Hardware Compatibility Guide at

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

Incoming and Outgoing Firewall Ports for ESXi Hosts

The vSphere Web Client and the VMware Host Client allow you to open and close firewall ports for each

service or to allow traffic from selected IP addresses.

The following table lists the firewalls for services that are installed by default. If you install other VIBs on

your host, additional services and firewall ports might become available. The information is primarily for

services that are visible in the vSphere Web Client but the table includes some other ports as well.

Table 5‑3. Incoming Firewall Connections

Port

Protoc

ol Service Description

5988 TCP CIM Server Server for CIM (Common Information Model).

5989 TCP CIM Secure Server Secure server for CIM.

427 TCP,

UDP

CIM SLP The CIM client uses the Service Location Protocol, version 2 (SLPv2) to find

CIM servers.

546 DHCPv6 DHCP client for IPv6.

8301, 8302 UDP DVSSync DVSSync ports are used for synchronizing states of distributed virtual ports

between hosts that have VMware FT record/replay enabled. Only hosts that

run primary or backup virtual machines must have these ports open. On hosts

that are not using VMware FT these ports do not have to be open.

902 TCP NFC Network File Copy (NFC) provides a file-type-aware FTP service for vSphere

components. ESXi uses NFC for operations such as copying and moving data

between datastores by default.

12345, 23451 UDP vSANClustering

Service

VMware vSAN Cluster Monitoring and Membership Directory Service. Uses

UDP-based IP multicast to establish cluster members and distribute vSAN

metadata to all cluster members. If disabled, vSAN does not work.

68 UDP DHCP Client DHCP client for IPv4.

53 UDP DNS Client DNS client.

8200, 8100,

8300

TCP,

UDP

Fault Tolerance Traffic between hosts for vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT).

6999 UDP NSX Distributed

Logical Router

Service

NSX Virtual Distributed Router service. The firewall port associated with this

service is opened when NSX VIBs are installed and the VDR module is

created. If no VDR instances are associated with the host, the port does not

have to be open.

This service was called NSX Distributed Logical Router in earlier versions of

the product.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 14

Table 5‑3. Incoming Firewall Connections (Continued)

Port

Protoc

ol Service Description

2233 TCP vSAN Transport vSAN reliable datagram transport. Uses TCP and is used for vSAN storage

IO. If disabled, vSAN does not work.

161 UDP SNMP Server Allows the host to connect to an SNMP server.

22 TCP SSH Server Required for SSH access.

8000 TCP vMotion Required for virtual machine migration with vMotion. ESXi hosts listen on port

8000 for TCP connections from remote ESXi hosts for vMotion traffic.

902, 443 TCP vSphere Web Client Client connections

8080 TCP vsanvp vSAN VASA Vendor Provider. Used by the Storage Management Service

(SMS) that is part of vCenter to access information about vSAN storage

profiles, capabilities, and compliance. If disabled, vSAN Storage Profile Based

Management (SPBM) does not work.

80 TCP vSphere Web Access Welcome page, with download links for different interfaces.

5900 -5964 TCP RFB protocol

80, 9000 TCP vSphere Update

Manager

Table 5‑4. Outgoing Firewall Connections

Port Protocol Service Description

427 TCP, UDP CIM SLP The CIM client uses the Service Location Protocol, version 2

(SLPv2) to find CIM servers.

547 TCP, UDP DHCPv6 DHCP client for IPv6.

8301, 8302 UDP DVSSync DVSSync ports are used for synchronizing states of distributed

virtual ports between hosts that have VMware FT record/replay

enabled. Only hosts that run primary or backup virtual machines

must have these ports open. On hosts that are not using VMware

FT these ports do not have to be open.

44046, 31031 TCP HBR Used for ongoing replication traffic by vSphere Replication and

VMware Site Recovery Manager.

902 TCP NFC Network File Copy (NFC) provides a file-type-aware FTP service

for vSphere components. ESXi uses NFC for operations such as

copying and moving data between datastores by default.

9 UDP WOL Used by Wake on LAN.

12345 23451 UDP vSAN Clustering

Service

Cluster Monitoring, Membership, and Directory Service used by

vSAN.

68 UDP DHCP Client DHCP client.

53 TCP, UDP DNS Client DNS client.

80, 8200, 8100, 8300 TCP, UDP Fault Tolerance Supports VMware Fault Tolerance.

3260 TCP Software iSCSI Client Supports software iSCSI.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 15

Table 5‑4. Outgoing Firewall Connections (Continued)

Port Protocol Service Description

6999 UDP NSX Distributed

Logical Router

Service

The firewall port associated with this service is opened when NSX

VIBs are installed and the VDR module is created. If no VDR

instances are associated with the host, the port does not have to

be open.

5671 TCP rabbitmqproxy A proxy running on the ESXi host. This proxy allows applications

that are running inside virtual machines to communicate with the

AMQP brokers that are running in the vCenter network domain.

The virtual machine does not have to be on the network, that is,

no NIC is required. Ensure that outgoing connection IP addresses

include at least the brokers in use or future. You can add brokers

later to scale up.

2233 TCP vSAN Transport Used for RDT traffic (Unicast peer to peer communication)

between vSAN nodes.

8000 TCP vMotion Required for virtual machine migration with vMotion.

902 UDP VMware vCenter

Agent

vCenter Server agent.

8080 TCP vsanvp Used for vSAN Vendor Provider traffic.

9080 TCP I/O Filter Service Used by the I/O Filters storage feature

Table 5‑5. Firewall Ports for Services That Are Not Visible in the UI by Default

Port

Proto

col Service Comment

5900 -5964 TCP RFB protocol The RFB protocol is a simple protocol for remote access to graphical user

interfaces.

8889 TCP OpenWSMAN

Daemon

Web Services Management (WS-Management is a DMTF open standard for

the management of servers, devices, applications, and Web services.

Required Free Space for System Logging

If you used Auto Deploy to install your ESXi 6.7 host, or if you set up a log directory separate from the

default location in a scratch directory on the VMFS volume, you might need to change your current log

size and rotation settings to ensure that enough space is available for system logging .

All vSphere components use this infrastructure. The default values for log capacity in this infrastructure

vary, depending on the amount of storage available and on how you have configured system logging.

Hosts that are deployed with Auto Deploy store logs on a RAM disk, which means that the amount of

space available for logs is small.

If your host is deployed with Auto Deploy, reconfigure your log storage in one of the following ways:

nRedirect logs over the network to a remote collector.

nRedirect logs to a NAS or NFS store.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 16

If you redirect logs to non-default storage, such as a NAS or NFS store, you might also want to

reconfigure log sizing and rotations for hosts that are installed to disk.

You do not need to reconfigure log storage for ESXi hosts that use the default configuration, which stores

logs in a scratch directory on the VMFS volume. For these hosts, ESXi 6.7 configures logs to best suit

your installation, and provides enough space to accommodate log messages.

Table 5‑6. Recommended Minimum Size and Rotation Conﬁguration for hostd, vpxa, and

fdm Logs

Log Maximum Log File Size

Number of Rotations to

Preserve Minimum Disk Space Required

Management Agent (hostd) 10 MB 10 100 MB

VirtualCenter Agent (vpxa) 5 MB 10 50 MB

vSphere HA agent (Fault

Domain Manager, fdm)

5 MB 10 50 MB

For information about setting up a remote log server, see Configure Syslog on ESXi Hosts.

VMware Host Client System Requirements

Make sure that your browser supports the VMware Host Client.

The following guest operating systems and Web browser versions are supported for the

VMware Host Client.

Supported Browsers Mac OS Windows Linux

Google Chrome 50+ 50+ 50+

Mozilla Firefox 45+ 45+ 45+

Microsoft Internet Explorer N/A 11+ N/A

Microsoft Edge N/A 38+ N/A

Safari 9.0+ N/A N/A

ESXi Passwords and Account Lockout

For ESXi hosts, you have to use a password with predefined requirements. You can change the required

length and character class requirement or allow pass phrases using the

Security.PasswordQualityControl advanced option.

ESXi uses the Linux PAM module pam_passwdqc for password management and control. See the man

page for pam_passwdqc for detailed information.

Note The default requirements for ESXi passwords can change from one release to the next. You can

check and change the default password restrictions using the Security.PasswordQualityControl

advanced option.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 17

ESXi Passwords

ESXi enforces password requirements for access from the Direct Console User Interface, the ESXi Shell,

SSH, or the VMware Host Client.

nBy default, you have to include a mix of characters from four character classes: lowercase letters,

uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters such as underscore or dash when you create a

password.

nBy default, password length is more than 7 and less than 40.

nPasswords cannot contain a dictionary word or part of a dictionary word.

Note An uppercase character that begins a password does not count toward the number of character

classes used. A number that ends a password does not count toward the number of character classes

used.

Example ESXi Passwords

The following password candidates illustrate potential passwords if the option is set as follows.

retry=3 min=disabled,disabled,disabled,7,7

With this setting, passwords with one or two character classes and pass phrases are not allowed,

because the first three items are disabled. Passwords from three- and four-character classes require

seven characters. See the pam_passwdqc man page for details.

With these settings, the following passwords are allowed.

nxQaTEhb!: Contains eight characters from three character classes.

nxQaT3#A: Contains seven characters from four character classes.

The following password candidates do not meet requirements.

nXqat3hi: Begins with an uppercase character, reducing the effective number of character classes to

two. The minimum number of required character classes is three.

nxQaTEh2: Ends with a number, reducing the effective number of character classes to two. The

minimum number of required character classes is three.

ESXi Pass Phrase

Instead of a password, you can also use a pass phrase; however, pass phrases are disabled by default.

You can change this default or other settings, by using the Security.PasswordQualityControl

advanced option from the vSphere Web Client.

For example, you can change the option to the following.

retry=3 min=disabled,disabled,16,7,7

This example allows pass phrases of at least 16 characters and at least 3 words, separated by spaces.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 18

For legacy hosts, changing the /etc/pamd/passwd file is still supported, but changing the file is

deprecated for future releases. Use the Security.PasswordQualityControl advanced option instead.

Changing Default Password Restrictions

You can change the default restriction on passwords or pass phrases by using the

Security.PasswordQualityControl advanced option for your ESXi host. See the vCenter Server and

Host Management documentation for information on setting ESXi advanced options.

You can change the default, for example, to require a minimum of 15 characters and a minimum number

of four words, as follows:

retry=3 min=disabled,disabled,15,7,7 passphrase=4

See the man page for pam_passwdqc for details.

Note Not all possible combinations of the options for pam_passwdqc have been tested. Perform

additional testing after you change the default password settings.

ESXi Account Lockout Behavior

Starting with vSphere 6.0, account locking is supported for access through SSH and through the vSphere

Web Services SDK. The Direct Console Interface (DCUI) and the ESXi Shell do not support account

lockout. By default, a maximum of ten failed attempts is allowed before the account is locked. The

account is unlocked after two minutes by default.

Conﬁguring Login Behavior

You can configure the login behavior for your ESXi host with the following advanced options:

nSecurity.AccountLockFailures. Maximum number of failed login attempts before a user's

account is locked. Zero disables account locking.

nSecurity.AccountUnlockTime. Number of seconds that a user is locked out.

See the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation for information on setting ESXi advanced

options.

Preparing for Installing ESXi

Before you install ESXi, determine the installation option that is suitable for your environment and prepare

for the installation process.

Download the ESXi Installer

Download the installer for ESXi.

Prerequisites

Create a My VMware account at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 19

Procedure

1Download the ESXi installer from the VMware Web site at

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads.

ESXi is listed under Datacenter & Cloud Infrastructure.

2Confirm that the md5sum is correct.

See the VMware Web site topic Using MD5 Checksums at

http://www.vmware.com/download/md5.html.

Options for Installing ESXi

ESXi can be installed in several ways. To ensure the best vSphere deployment, understand the options

thoroughly before beginning the installation.

ESXi installations are designed to accommodate a range of deployment sizes.

Depending on the installation method you choose, different options are available for accessing the

installation media and booting the installer.

Interactive ESXi Installation

Interactive installations are recommended for small deployments of fewer than five hosts.

You boot the installer from a CD or DVD, from a bootable USB device, or by PXE booting the installer

from a location on the network. You follow the prompts in the installation wizard to install ESXi to disk.

See Installing ESXi Interactively.

Scripted ESXi Installation

Running a script is an efficient way to deploy multiple ESXi hosts with an unattended installation.

The installation script contains the host configuration settings. You can use the script to configure multiple

hosts with the same settings. See Installing or Upgrading Hosts by Using a Script.

The installation script must be stored in a location that the host can access by HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, NFS,

CDROM, or USB. You can PXE boot the ESXi installer or boot it from a CD/DVD or USB drive.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 20

Figure 5‑1. Scripted Installation

Scripted

HTTP

HTTPS

FTP

NFS

CDROM

USB

Create installation script (kickstart file)

and copy to appropriate location.

PXE boot Boot from USB

Issues command to specify

location of installation script

and start installation.

Start installation

Boot from CD

vSphere Auto Deploy ESXi Installation

vSphere 5.x and later provide several ways to install ESXi with vSphere Auto Deploy.

vSphere Auto Deploy can provision hundreds of physical hosts with ESXi software. You can specify the

image to deploy and the hosts to provision with the image. Optionally, you can specify host profiles to

apply to the hosts, a vCenter Server location (datacenter, folder, or cluster), and script bundle for each

host.

vCenter Server makes ESXi updates and patches available for download in the form of an image profile.

The host configuration is provided in the form of a host profile. You can create host profiles by using the

vSphere Web Client. You can create custom image profiles by using vSphere ESXi Image Builder. See

Customizing Installations with vSphere ESXi Image Builder and vSphere Host Profiles.

When you provision hosts by using vSphere Auto Deploy, vCenter Server loads the ESXi image directly

into the host memory. vSphere Auto Deploy does not store the ESXi state on the host disk. The vSphere

Auto Deploy server continues to provision this host every time the host boots.

You can also use vSphere Auto Deploy to install an ESXi host, and set up a host profile that causes the

host to store the ESXi image and configuration on the local disk, a remote disk, or a USB drive.

Subsequently, the ESXi host boots from this local image and vSphere Auto Deploy no longer provisions

the host. This process is similar to performing a scripted installation. With a scripted installation, the script

provisions a host and the host then boots from disk. For this case, vSphere Auto Deploy provisions a host

and the host then boots from disk. For more information, see Using vSphere Auto Deploy for Stateless

Caching and Stateful Installs.

Media Options for Booting the ESXi Installer

The ESXi installer must be accessible to the system on which you are installing ESXi.

The following boot media are supported for the ESXi installer:

nBoot from a CD/DVD. See Download and Burn the ESXi Installer ISO Image to a CD or DVD.

nBoot from a USB flash drive. See Format a USB Flash Drive to Boot the ESXi Installation or Upgrade.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 21

nPXE boot from the network. PXE Booting the ESXi Installer

nBoot from a remote location using a remote management application. See Using Remote

Management Applications

Download and Burn the ESXi Installer ISO Image to a CD or DVD

If you do not have an ESXi installation CD/DVD, you can create one.

You can also create an installer ISO image that includes a custom installation script. See Create an

Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script.

Procedure

1Download the ESXi installer from the VMware Web site at

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads.

ESXi is listed under Datacenter & Cloud Infrastructure.

2Confirm that the md5sum is correct.

See the VMware Web site topic Using MD5 Checksums at

http://www.vmware.com/download/md5.html.

3Burn the ISO image to a CD or DVD.

Format a USB Flash Drive to Boot the ESXi Installation or Upgrade

You can format a USB flash drive to boot the ESXi installation or upgrade.

The instructions in this procedure assume that the USB flash drive is detected as /dev/sdb.

Note The ks.cfg file that contains the installation script cannot be located on the same USB flash drive

that you are using to boot the installation or upgrade.

Prerequisites

nLinux machine with superuser access to it

nUSB flash drive that can be detected by the Linux machine

nThe ESXi ISO image, VMware-VMvisor-Installer-version_number-

build_number.x86_64.iso, which includes the isolinux.cfg file

nSyslinux package

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 22

Procedure

1If your USB flash drive is not detected as /dev/sdb, or you are not sure how your USB flash drive is

detected, determine how it is detected.

a At the command line, run the command for displaying the current log messages.

tail -f /var/log/messages

b Plug in your USB flash drive.

You see several messages that identify the USB flash drive in a format similar to the following

message.

Oct 25 13:25:23 ubuntu kernel: [ 712.447080] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

In this example, sdb identifies the USB device. If your device is identified differently, use that

identification, in place of sdb.

2Create a partition table on the USB flash device.

/sbin/fdisk /dev/sdb

a Enter d to delete partitions until they are all deleted.

b Enter n to create a primary partition 1 that extends over the entire disk.

c Enter t to set the type to an appropriate setting for the FAT32 file system, such as c.

d Enter a to set the active flag on partition 1.

e Enter p to print the partition table.

The result should be similar to the following message.

Disk /dev/sdb: 2004 MB, 2004877312 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sdb1 1 243 1951866 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

f Enter w to write the partition table and exit the program.

3Format the USB flash drive with the Fat32 file system.

/sbin/mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n USB /dev/sdb1

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 23

4Install the Syslinux bootloader on the USB flash drive.

The locations of the Syslinux executable file and the mbr.bin file might vary for the different Syslinux

versions. For example, if you downloaded Syslinux 6.02, run the following commands.

/usr/bin/syslinux /dev/sdb1

cat /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/mbr.bin > /dev/sdb

5Create a destination directory and mount the USB flash drive to it.

mkdir /usbdisk

mount /dev/sdb1 /usbdisk

6Create a destination directory and mount the ESXi installer ISO image to it.

mkdir /esxi_cdrom

mount -o loop VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.x.x-XXXXXX.x86_64.iso /esxi_cdrom

7Copy the contents of the ISO image to the USB flash drive.

cp -r /esxi_cdrom/* /usbdisk

8Rename the isolinux.cfg file to syslinux.cfg.

mv /usbdisk/isolinux.cfg /usbdisk/syslinux.cfg

9In the /usbdisk/syslinux.cfg file, edit the APPEND -c boot.cfg line to APPEND -c boot.cfg -p

10 Unmount the USB flash drive.

umount /usbdisk

11 Unmount the installer ISO image.

umount /esxi_cdrom

The USB flash drive can boot the ESXi installer.

Create a USB Flash Drive to Store the ESXi Installation Script or Upgrade

Script

You can use a USB flash drive to store the ESXi installation script or upgrade script that is used during

scripted installation or upgrade of ESXi.

When multiple USB flash drives are present on the installation machine, the installation software

searches for the installation or upgrade script on all attached USB flash drives.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 24

The instructions in this procedure assume that the USB flash drive is detected as /dev/sdb.

Note Do not store the ks file containing the installation or upgrade script on the same USB flash drive

that you are using to boot the installation or upgrade.

Prerequisites

nLinux machine

nESXi installation or upgrade script, the ks.cfg kickstart file

nUSB flash drive

Procedure

1Attach the USB flash drive to a Linux machine that has access to the installation or upgrade script.

2Create a partition table.

/sbin/fdisk /dev/sdb

a Type d to delete partitions until they are all deleted.

b Type n to create primary partition 1 that extends over the entire disk.

c Type t to set the type to an appropriate setting for the FAT32 file system, such as c.

d Type p to print the partition table.

The result should be similar to the following text:

Disk /dev/sdb: 2004 MB, 2004877312 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sdb1 1 243 1951866 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

e Type w to write the partition table and quit.

3Format the USB flash drive with the Fat32 file system.

/sbin/mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n USB /dev/sdb1

4Mount the USB flash drive.

mount /dev/sdb1 /usbdisk

5Copy the ESXi installation script to the USB flash drive.

cp ks.cfg /usbdisk

6Unmount the USB flash drive.

The USB flash drive contains the installation or upgrade script for ESXi.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 25

What to do next

When you boot the ESXi installer, point to the location of the USB flash drive for the installation or

upgrade script. See Enter Boot Options to Start an Installation or Upgrade Script and PXELINUX

Configuration Files.

Create an Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script

You can customize the standard ESXi installer ISO image with your own installation or upgrade script.

This customization enables you to perform a scripted, unattended installation or upgrade when you boot

the resulting installer ISO image.

See also About Installation and Upgrade Scripts and About the boot.cfg File.

Prerequisites

nLinux machine

nThe ESXi ISO image VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.x.x-XXXXXX.x86_64.iso,where 6.x.x is the

version of ESXi you are installing, and XXXXXX is the build number of the installer ISO image

nYour custom installation or upgrade script, the ks_cust.cfg kickstart file

Procedure

1Download the ESXi ISO image from the VMware Web site.

2Mount the ISO image in a folder:

mount -o loop VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.x.x-XXXXXX.x86_64.iso /esxi_cdrom_mount

XXXXXX is the ESXi build number for the version that you are installing or upgrading to.

3Copy the contents of cdrom to another folder:

cp -r /esxi_cdrom_mount /esxi_cdrom

4Copy the kickstart file to /esxi_cdrom.

cp ks_cust.cfg /esxi_cdrom

5(Optional) Modify the boot.cfg file to specify the location of the installation or upgrade script by

using the kernelopt option.

You must use uppercase characters to provide the path of the script, for example,

kernelopt=runweasel ks=cdrom:/KS_CUST.CFG

The installation or upgrade becomes completely automatic, without the need to specify the kickstart

file during the installation or upgrade.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 26

6Recreate the ISO image using the mkisofs or the genisoimage command.

Command Syntax

mkisofs mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -J -R -o custom_esxi.iso -b

isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-

info-table -eltorito-alt-boot -eltorito-platform efi -b

efiboot.img -no-emul-boot /esxi_cdrom

genisoimage genisoimage -relaxed-filenames -J -R -o custom_esxi.iso -b

isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-

info-table -eltorito-alt-boot -e efiboot.img -no-emul-

boot /esxi_cdrom

You can use this ISO image for regular boot or UEFI secure boot.

The ISO image includes your custom installation or upgrade script.

What to do next

Install ESXi from the ISO image.

PXE Booting the ESXi Installer

You can use the preboot execution environment (PXE) to boot a host. Starting with vSphere 6.0, you can

PXE boot the ESXi installer from a network interface on hosts with legacy BIOS or using UEFI.

ESXi is distributed in an ISO format that is designed to install to flash memory or to a local hard drive. You

can extract the files and boot by using PXE.

PXE uses Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) to boot

an operating system over a network.

PXE booting requires some network infrastructure and a machine with a PXE-capable network adapter.

Most machines that can run ESXi have network adapters that can PXE boot.

Note PXE booting with legacy BIOS firmware is possible only over IPv4. PXE booting with UEFI

firmware is possible with either IPv4 or IPv6.

Sample DHCP Conﬁgurations

To PXE boot the ESXi installer, the DHCP server must send the address of the TFTP server and the

filename of the initial boot loader to the ESXi host.

When the target machine first boots, it broadcasts a packet across the network requesting information to

boot itself. The DHCP server responds. The DHCP server must be able to determine whether the target

machine is allowed to boot and the location of the initial boot loader binary, typically a file on a TFTP

server.

Caution Do not set up a second DHCP server if your network already has one. If multiple DHCP servers

respond to DHCP requests, machines can obtain incorrect or conflicting IP addresses, or can fail to

receive the proper boot information. Talk to a network administrator before setting up a DHCP server. For

support on configuring DHCP, contact your DHCP server vendor.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 27

Many DHCP servers can PXE boot hosts. If you are using a version of DHCP for Microsoft Windows, see

the DHCP server documentation to determine how to pass the next-server and filename arguments to

the target machine.

Example of Booting Using TFTP with IPv4

This example shows how to configure an ISC DHCP server to boot ESXi using a TFTP server at IPv4

address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.

# ISC DHCP server configuration file snippet. This is not a complete

# configuration file; see the ISC server documentation for details on

# how to configure the DHCP server.

allow booting;

allow bootp;

option client-system-arch code 93 = unsigned integer 16;

class "pxeclients" {

match if substring(option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";

next-server xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx;

if option client-system-arch = 00:07 or option client-system-arch = 00:09 {

filename = "mboot.efi";

} else {

filename = "pxelinux.0";

}

When a machine attempts to PXE boot, the DHCP server provides an IP address and the location of the

pxelinux.0 or mboot.efi binary file on the TFTP server.

Example of Booting Using TFTP with IPv6

This example shows how to configure an ISC DHCPv6 server to boot ESXi using a TFTP server at IPv6

address xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx.

# ISC DHCPv6 server configuration file snippet. This is not a complete

# configuration file; see the ISC server documentation for details on

# how to configure the DHCP server.

allow booting;

allow bootp;

option dhcp6.bootfile-url code 59 = string;

option dhcp6.bootfile-url "tftp://[xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx]/mboot.efi";

When a machine attempts to PXE boot, the DHCP server provides an IP address and the location of the

mboot.efi binary file on the TFTP server.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 28

Example of Booting Using HTTP with IPv4

This example shows how to configure an ISC DHCP server to boot ESXi using a Web server at IPv4

address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. The example uses gPXELINUX for legacy BIOS hosts and iPXE for UEFI hosts.

# ISC DHCPv6 server configuration file snippet. This is not a complete

# configuration file; see the ISC server documentation for details on

# how to configure the DHCP server.

allow booting;

allow bootp;

option client-system-arch code 93 = unsigned integer 16;

class "pxeclients" {

match if substring(option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";

next-server xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx;

if option client-system-arch = 00:07 or option client-system-arch = 00:09 {

if exists user-class and option user-class = "iPXE" {

# Instruct iPXE to load mboot.efi as secondary bootloader

filename = "mboot.efi";

} else {

# Load the snponly.efi configuration of iPXE as initial bootloader

filename = "snponly.efi";

}

} else {

filename "gpxelinux.0";

}

When a machine attempts to PXE boot, the DHCP server provides an IP address and the location of the

gpxelinux.0 or snponly.efi binary file on the TFTP server. In the UEFI case, iPXE then asks the

DHCP server for the next file to load, and this time the server returns mboot.efi as the filename.

Example of Booting Using HTTP with IPv6

This example shows how to configure an ISC DHCPv6 server to boot ESXi using a TFTP server at IPv6

address xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx.

# ISC DHCPv6 server configuration file snippet. This is not a complete

# configuration file; see the ISC server documentation for details on

# how to configure the DHCP server.

allow booting;

allow bootp;

option dhcp6.bootfile-url code 59 = string;

if exists user-class and option user-class = "iPXE" {

# Instruct iPXE to load mboot.efi as secondary bootloader

option dhcp6.bootfile-url "tftp://[xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx]/mboot.efi";

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 29

} else {

# Load the snponly.efi configuration of iPXE as initial bootloader

option dhcp6.bootfile-url "tftp://[xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx]/snponly.efi";

}

When a machine attempts to PXE boot, the DHCP server provides an IP address and the location of the

snponly.efi (iPXE) binary file on the TFTP server. iPXE then asks the DHCP server for the next file to

load, and this time the server returns mboot.efi as the filename.

PXELINUX Conﬁguration Files

You need a PXELINUX configuration file to boot the ESXi installer on a legacy BIOS system. The

configuration file defines the menu displayed to the target ESXi host as it boots up and contacts the TFTP

server for all SYSLINUX configurations, including PXELINUX and gPXELINUX.

This section gives general information about PXELINUX configuration files. For examples, see Sample

DHCP Configurations.

For syntax details, see the SYSLINUX web site at http://www.syslinux.org/.

Required Files

In the PXE configuration file, you must include paths to the following files:

nmboot.c32 is the boot loader.

nboot.cfg is the boot loader configuration file.

See About the boot.cfg File

File Name for the PXE Conﬁguration File

For the file name of the PXE configuration file, select one of the following options:

n01-mac_address_of_target_ESXi_host. For example, 01-23-45-67-89-0a-bc

nThe target ESXi host IP address in hexadecimal notation.

ndefault

The initial boot file, pxelinux.0 or gpxelinux.0, tries to load a PXE configuration file in the following

order:

1 It tries with the MAC address of the target ESXi host, prefixed with its ARP type code, which is 01 for

Ethernet.

2 If that attempt fails, it tries with the hexadecimal notation of target ESXi system IP address.

3 Ultimately, it tries to load a file named default.

File Location for the PXE Conﬁguration File

Save the file in /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ on the TFTP server.

For example, you might save the file on the TFTP server at /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/01-00-21-5a-

ce-40-f6. The MAC address of the network adapter on the target ESXi host is 00-21-5a-ce-40-f6.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 30

PXE Boot Background Information

Understanding the PXE boot process can help you during troubleshooting.

TFTP Server

Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is similar to the FTP service, and is typically used only for network

booting systems or loading firmware on network devices such as routers. TFTP is available on Linux and

Windows.

nMost Linux distributions include a copy of the tftp-hpa server. If you require a supported solution,

purchase a supported TFTP server from your vendor of choice. You can also acquire a TFTP server

from one of the packaged appliances on the VMware Marketplace.

nIf your TFTP server will run on a Microsoft Windows host, use tftpd32 version 2.11 or later. See

http://tftpd32.jounin.net/.

SYSLINUX, PXELINUX, and gPXELINUX

If you are using PXE in a legacy BIOS environment, you need to understand the different boot

environments.

nSYSLINUX is an open source boot environment for machines that run legacy BIOS firmware. The

ESXi boot loader for BIOS systems, mbootc.32, runs as a SYSLINUX plugin. You can configure

SYSLINUX to boot from several types of media, including disk, ISO image, and network. You can find

the SYSLINUX package at http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/.

nPXELINUX is a SYSXLINUX configuration for booting from a TFTP server according to the PXE

standard. If you use PXELINUX to boot the ESXi installer, the pxelinux.0 binary file, mboot.c32,

the configuration file, the kernel, and other files are all transferred by TFTP.

ngPXELINUX is a hybrid configuration that includes both PXELINUX and gPXE and supports booting

from a Web server. gPXELINUX is part of the SYSLINUX package. If you use gPXELINUX to boot the

ESXi installer, only the gpxelinux.0 binary file, mboot.c32, and the configuration file are transferred

via TFTP. The remaining files are transferred via HTTP. HTTP is typically faster and more reliable

than TFTP, especially for transferring large amounts of data on a heavily loaded network.

Note VMware currently builds the mboot.c32 plugin to work with SYSLINUX version 3.86 and tests PXE

booting only with that version. Other versions are likely to be incompatible. This is not a statement of

limited support. For support of third-party agents that you use to set up your PXE booting infrastructure,

contact the vendor.

UEFI PXE and iPXE

Most UEFI firmware natively includes PXE support that allows booting from a TFTP server. The firmware

can directly load the ESXi boot loader for UEFI systems, mboot.efi. Additional software such as

PXELINUX is not required.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 31

iPXE can also be useful for UEFI systems that do not include PXE in firmware and for older UEFI systems

with bugs in their PXE support. For such cases you can try installing iPXE on a USB flash drive and

booting from there.

Note Apple Macintosh products do not include PXE boot support. They include support for network

booting via an Apple-specific protocol instead.

Alternative Approaches to PXE Booting

Alternative approaches to PXE booting different software on different hosts are also possible, for

example:

nConfiguring the DHCP server to provide different initial boot loader filenames to different hosts

depending on MAC address or other criteria. See your DCHP server's documentation.

nApproaches using iPXE as the initial bootloader with an iPXE configuration file that selects the next

bootloader based on the MAC address or other criteria.

Installing and Booting ESXi with Software FCoE

You can install and boot ESXi from an FCoE LUN using VMware software FCoE adapters and network

adapters with FCoE offload capabilities. Your host does not require a dedicated FCoE HBA.

See the vSphere Storage documentation for information about installing and booting ESXi with software

FCoE.

Using Remote Management Applications

Remote management applications allow you to install ESXi on servers that are in remote locations.

Remote management applications supported for installation include HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO), Dell

Remote Access Card (DRAC), IBM management module (MM), and Remote Supervisor Adapter II (RSA

II). For a list of currently supported server models and remote management firmware versions, see

Supported Remote Management Server Models and Firmware Versions. For support on remote

management applications, contact the vendor.

You can use remote management applications to do both interactive and scripted installations of ESXi

remotely.

If you use remote management applications to install ESXi, the virtual CD might encounter corruption

problems with systems or networks operating at peak capacity. If a remote installation from an ISO image

fails, complete the installation from the physical CD media.

Customizing Installations with vSphere ESXi Image Builder

You can use VMware vSphere® ESXi™ Image Builder CLI to create ESXi installation images with a

customized set of updates, patches, and drivers.

You can use vSphere ESXi Image Builder with the vSphere Web Client or with PowerCLI to create an

ESXi installation image with a customized set of ESXi updates and patches. You can also include third-

party network or storage drivers that are released between vSphere releases.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 32

You can deploy an ESXi image created with vSphere ESXi Image Builder in either of the following ways:

nBy burning it to an installation DVD.

nThrough vCenter Server, using the Auto Deploy feature.

Understanding vSphere ESXi Image Builder

You can use the VMware vSphere® ESXi™ Image Builder CLI to manage software depots, image

profiles, and software packages (VIBs). Image profiles and VIBs specify the software you want to use

during installation or upgrade of an ESXi host.

vSphere ESXi Image Builder Overview

vSphere ESXi Image Builder lets you manage vSphere image profiles and VIBs.

VIBs are software packages, and image profiles contain a set of software packages. See Software

Depots and Their Components.

Figure 5‑2. Image Builder Architecture

esxcli

ISO

ZIP

Depot

Image

Profile

Image

Profile

VIBVIB

Windows Client

Image Builder

PowerCLI User-Created

Image Profile

vSphere

Auto Deploy

vSphere

Update Manager

You use vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets for managing the software to deploy to your ESXi hosts in

several different situations.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 33

Table 5‑7. Cases Where You Can Use vSphere ESXi Image Builder

Use Case for vSphere ESXi Image Builder Description

Create image profiles for use by vSphere Auto Deploy Use vSphere ESXi Image Builder to create an image profile that

defines the VIBs that vSphere Auto Deploy uses to provision

hosts.

Add custom third-party drivers to existing image profile and

export to ISO or bundle

When you add third-party driver or extension custom VIBs to

your ESXi hosts, use vSphere ESXi Image Builder to clone the

base image provided by VMware, add the custom VIBs, and

export to ISO or to offline bundle ZIP file.

Perform upgrades If you upgrade from a 4.0 or 4.1 system that includes custom

extensions or drivers, you can use vSphere ESXi Image Builder

to create an image profile that includes the vSphere 5 base VIB.

You can create vSphere 5 VIBs for the custom extensions and

add those VIBs to the base VIB. Export the custom image profile

to an ISO you can install or to a ZIP that you can use with

vSphere Update Manager.

Create custom images with reduced footprint If you require a minimal footprint image, you can clone the ESXi

base image profile and remove VIBs using vSphere ESXi Image

Builder.

The vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets take image profiles and VIBs as input and produce various

outputs.

Table 5‑8. Input and Output to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder Cmdlets

Parameter Description

Input Image profiles and VIBs that are located in a software depot are

used as input to PowerCLI cmdlets running on a Windows client.

Output PowerCLI cmdlets create custom image profiles that can be

exported to an ISO image or an offline depot ZIP file. ISO

images are used for installation. The ZIP depot can be used by

Update Manager or by esxcli software commands to update

or install images. Image profiles are also used in vSphere Auto

Deploy rules to customize the software to provision ESXi hosts

with.

Watch the video "Using Image Builder CLI" for information about vSphere ESXi Image Builder:

Using Image Builder CLI (http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid2296383276001?

bctid=ref:video_using_image_builder_cli)

Software Depots and Their Components

Understanding how depots, profiles, and VIBs are structured and where you can use them is a

prerequisite for in-memory installation of a custom ESXi ISO, for provisioning ESXi hosts using vSphere

Auto Deploy, and for certain custom upgrade operations.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 34

The following technical terms are used throughout the vSphere documentation set in discussions of

installation and upgrade tasks.

VIB A VIB is an ESXi software package. VMware and its partners package

solutions, drivers, CIM providers, and applications that extend the ESXi

platform as VIBs. VIBs are available in software depots. You can use VIBs

to create and customize ISO images or to upgrade ESXi hosts by installing

VIBs asynchronously onto the hosts.

See SoftwarePackage Object Properties.

Image Profile An image profile defines an ESXi image and consists of VIBs. An image

profile always includes a base VIB, and might include more VIBs. You

examine and define an image profile by using vSphere ESXi Image Builder.

See ImageProfile Object Properties.

Software Depot A software depot is a collection of VIBs and image profiles. The software

depot is a hierarchy of files and folders and can be available through an

HTTP URL (online depot) or a ZIP file (offline depot). VMware and VMware

partners make depots available. Companies with large VMware

installations might create internal depots to provision ESXi hosts with

vSphere Auto Deploy, or to export an ISO for ESXi installation.

vSphere ESXi Image Builder Cmdlets Overview

vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets allow you to manage image profiles and VIBs.

vSphere ESXi Image Builder includes the following cmdlets.

Note When you run vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets, provide all parameters on the command line

when you invoke the cmdlet. Supplying parameters in interactive mode is not recommended.

Run Get-Help cmdlet_name at the PowerCLI prompt for detailed reference information.

Table 5‑9. vSphere ESXi Image Builder Cmdlets

Cmdlet Description

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot Adds the software depot or ZIP file at the specified location to your current environment. Downloads

metadata from the depot and analyzes VIBs for dependencies.

Remove-EsxSoftwareDepot Disconnects from the specified software depot.

Get-EsxSoftwareDepot Returns a list of software depots that are in the current environment. If you want to examine and

manage image profiles and VIBs, you must first add the corresponding software depot to your

environment.

Get-EsxSoftwarePackage Returns a list of software package objects (VIBs). Use this cmdlet's options to filter the results.

Get-EsxImageProfile Returns an array of ImageProfile objects from all currently added depots.

New-EsxImageProfile Creates a new image profile. In most cases, creating a new profile by cloning an existing profile is

recommended. See Clone an Image Profile.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 35

Table 5‑9. vSphere ESXi Image Builder Cmdlets (Continued)

Cmdlet Description

Set-EsxImageProfile Modifies a local ImageProfile object and performs validation tests on the modified profile. The

cmdlet returns the modified object but does not persist it.

Export-EsxImageProfile Exports an image profile as either an ESXi ISO image for ESXi installation, or as a ZIP file.

Compare-EsxImageProfile Returns an ImageProfileDiff structure that shows whether the two profiles have the same VIB

list and acceptance level. See Acceptance Levels.

Remove-EsxImageProfile Removes the image profile from the software depot.

Add-EsxSoftwarePackage Adds one or more new packages (VIBs) to an existing image profile.

Remove-

EsxSoftwarePackage

Removes one or more packages (VIBs) from an image profile.

Image Proﬁles

Image profiles define the set of VIBs that an ESXi installation or update process uses. Image profiles

apply to hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy and to other ESXi 5.x hosts. You define and

manipulate image profiles with vSphere ESXi Image Builder.

Image Proﬁle Requirements

You can create a custom image profile from scratch or clone an existing profile and add or remove VIBs.

A profile must meet the following requirements to be valid.

nEach image profile must have a unique name and vendor combination.

nEach image profile has an acceptance level. When you add a VIB to an image profile with an vSphere

ESXi Image Builder cmdlet, Image Builder checks that the VIB matches the acceptance level defined

for the profile.

nYou cannot remove VIBs that are required by other VIBs.

nYou cannot include two versions of the same VIB in an image profile. When you add a new version of

a VIB, the new version replaces the existing version of the VIB.

Image Proﬁle Validation

An image profile and its VIBs must meet several criteria to be valid.

nImage profiles must contain at least one base VIB and one bootable kernel module.

nIf any VIB in the image profile depends on another VIB, that other VIB must also be included in the

image profile. VIB creators store that information in the SoftwarePackage object's Depends property.

nVIBs must not conflict with each other. VIB creators store conflict information in the SoftwarePackage

object's Conflicts property.

nTwo VIBs with the same name, but two different versions, cannot coexist. When you add a new

version of a VIB, the new version replaces the existing version of the VIB.

nNo acceptance level validation issues exist.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 36

When you make a change to an image profile, vSphere ESXi Image Builder checks that the change does

not invalidate the profile.

Dependency Validation When you add or remove a VIB, vSphere ESXi Image Builder checks that

package dependencies are met. Each SoftwarePackage object includes a

Depends property that specifies a list of other VIBs that VIB depends on.

See Structure of ImageProfile, SoftwarePackage, and ImageProfileDiff

Objects

Acceptance Level

Validation

vSphere ESXi Image Builder performs acceptance level validation each

time an image profile is created or changed. vSphere ESXi Image Builder

checks the acceptance level of VIBs in the image profile against the

minimum allowed acceptance level of the profile. The acceptance level of

the VIB is also validated each time the signature of a VIB is validated.

VIB Validation During Export

When you export an image profile to an ISO, vSphere ESXi Image Builder validates each VIB by

performing the following actions.

nChecks that no conflicts exist by checking the Conflicts property of each SoftwarePackage object.

nPerforms VIB signature validation. Signature validation prevents unauthorized modification of VIB

packages. The signature is a cryptographic checksum that guarantees that a VIB was produced by its

author. Signature validation also happens during installation of VIBs on an ESXi host and when the

vSphere Auto Deploy server uses VIBs.

nChecks that VIBs follow file path usage rules. VMware tests VMwareCertified and VMwareAccepted

VIBs to guarantee those VIBs always follow file path usage rules.

Acceptance Levels

Each VIB is released with an acceptance level that cannot be changed. The host acceptance level

determines which VIBs can be installed to a host. You can change the host acceptance levels with

esxcli commands.

VMware supports the following acceptance levels.

VMwareCertified The VMwareCertified acceptance level has the most stringent

requirements. VIBs with this level go through thorough testing fully

equivalent to VMware in-house Quality Assurance testing for the same

technology. Today, only I/O Vendor Program (IOVP) program drivers are

published at this level. VMware takes support calls for VIBs with this

acceptance level.

VMwareAccepted VIBs with this acceptance level go through verification testing, but the tests

do not fully test every function of the software. The partner runs the tests

and VMware verifies the result. Today, CIM providers and PSA plug-ins are

among the VIBs published at this level. VMware directs support calls for

VIBs with this acceptance level to the partner's support organization.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 37

PartnerSupported VIBs with the PartnerSupported acceptance level are published by a

partner that VMware trusts. The partner performs all testing. VMware does

not verify the results. This level is used for a new or nonmainstream

technology that partners want to enable for VMware systems. Today, driver

VIB technologies such as Infiniband, ATAoE, and SSD are at this level with

nonstandard hardware drivers. VMware directs support calls for VIBs with

this acceptance level to the partner's support organization.

CommunitySupported The CommunitySupported acceptance level is for VIBs created by

individuals or companies outside of VMware partner programs. VIBs at this

level have not gone through any VMware-approved testing program and

are not supported by VMware Technical Support or by a VMware partner.

Structure of ImageProﬁle, SoftwarePackage, and ImageProﬁleDi Objects

Knowing the structure of ImageProfile, SoftwarePackage, and ImageProfileDiff objects helps you

manage deployment and upgrade processes.

ImageProﬁle Object Properties

The ImageProfile object, which is accessible with the Get-EsxImageProfile PowerCLI cmdlet, has

the following properties.

Name Type Description

AcceptanceLevel AcceptanceLevel Determines which VIBs you can add to the

profile. Levels are VMwareCertified,

VMwareAccepted, PartnerSupported, and

CommunitySupported. See Acceptance

Levels.

Author System.String The person who created the profile. 60

characters or fewer.

CreationTime System.DateTime The timestamp of creation time.

Description System.String The full text description of profile. No

length limit.

GUID System.String Globally unique ID of the image profile.

ModifiedTime System.DateTime The timestamp of last modification time.

Name System.String The name of the image profile. 80

characters or fewer.

ReadOnly System.Boolean When set to true, the profile cannot be

edited. Use Set-EsxImageProfile -

Readonly to make your custom image

profiles read-only.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 38

Name Type Description

Rules ImageProfileRule[] Any OEM hardware requirements and

restrictions that the image profile might

have. vSphere Auto Deploy verifies the

value of this property when deploying an

image profile and deploys the profile if

matching hardware is available.

Vendor System.String The organization that publishes the profile.

40 characters or fewer.

VibList SoftwarePackage[] The list of VIB IDs the image contains.

SoftwarePackage Object Properties

When preparing an image profile, you can examine software packages to decide which packages are

suitable for inclusion. The SoftwarePackage object has the following properties.

Name Type Description

AcceptanceLevel AcceptanceLevel The acceptance level of this VIB.

Conflicts SoftwareConstraint[] A list of VIBs that cannot be installed at

the same time as this VIB. Each constraint

uses the following format:

package-name[<<|<=|=|>=|<<

version]

Depends SoftwareConstraint[] A list of VIBs that must be installed at the

same time as this VIB. Same constraint

format as Conflicts property.

Description System.String The long description of the VIB.

Guid System.String The unique ID for the VIB.

LiveInstallOk System.Boolean True if live installs of this VIB are

supported.

LiveRemoveOk System.Boolean True if live removals of this VIB are

supported.

MaintenanceMode System.Boolean True if hosts must be in maintenance

mode for installation of this VIB.

Name System.String The name of the VIB. Usually uniquely

describes the package on a running ESXi

system.

Provides SoftwareProvides The list of virtual packages or interfaces

this VIB provides. See SoftwareProvide

Object Properties.

ReferenceURLs SupportReference[] The list of SupportReference objects

with in-depth support information. The

SupportReference object has two

properties, Title and URL, both of type

System.String.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 39

Name Type Description

Replaces SoftwareConstraint[] The list of SoftwareConstraint objects

that identify VIBs that replace this VIB or

make it obsolete. VIBs automatically

replace VIBs with the same name but

lower versions.

ReleaseDate System.DateTime Date and time of VIB publication or

release.

SourceUrls System.String[] The list of source URLs from which this

VIB can be downloaded.

StatelessReady System.Boolean True if the package supports host profiles

or other technologies that make it suitable

for use in conjunction with vSphere Auto

Deploy.

Summary System.String A one-line summary of the VIB.

Tags System.String[] An array of string tags for this package

defined by the vendor or publisher. Tags

can be used to identify characteristics of a

package.

Vendor System.String The VIB vendor or publisher.

Version System.String The VIB version.

VersionObject Software.Version The VersionObject property is of type

SoftwareVersion. The

SoftwareVersion class implements a

static Compare method to compare two

versions of strings. See SoftwareVersion

Object Properties

ImageProﬁleDi Object Properties

When you run the Compare-EsxImageProfile cmdlet, you pass in two parameters, first the reference

profile, and then the comparison profile. The cmdlet returns an ImageProfileDiff object, which has the

following properties.

Name Type Description

CompAcceptanceLevel System.String The acceptance level for the second

profile that you passed to Compare-

EsxImageProfile.

DowngradeFromRef System.String[] The list of VIBs in the second profile that

are downgrades from VIBs in the first

profile.

Equal System.Boolean True if the two image profiles have

identical packages and acceptance levels.

OnlyInComp System.String The list of VIBs found only in the second

profile that you passed to Compare-

EsxImageProfile.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 40

Name Type Description

OnlyInRef System.String[] The list of VIBs found only in the first

profile that you passed to Compare-

EsxImageProfile.

PackagesEqual System.Boolean True if the image profiles have identical

sets of VIB packages.

RefAcceptanceLevel System.String The acceptance level for the first profile

that you passed to Compare-

EsxImageProfile.

UpgradeFromRef System.String[] The list of VIBs in the second profile that

are upgrades from VIBs in the first profile.

SoftwareVersion Object Properties

The SoftwareVersion object lets you compare two version strings. The object includes a Comparestatic

method that accepts two strings as input and returns 1 if the first version string is a higher number than

the second version string. Compare returns 0 if two versions strings are equal. Compare returns -1 if the

second version string is a higher number than the first string. The object has the following properties.

Name Type Description

Version System.String The part of the version before the hyphen.

This part indicates the primary version.

Release System.String The part of the version after the hyphen.

This part indicates the release version.

SoftwareConstraint Object Properties

The SoftwareConstraint object implements a MatchesProvide method. The method accepts a

SoftwareProvides or SoftwarePackage object as input and returns True if the constraint matches the

SoftwareProvide or the SoftwarePackage, or returns False otherwise.

The SoftwareConstraint object includes the following properties.

Name Type Description

Name System.String The name of the constraint. This name

should match a corresponding

SoftwareProvide Name property.

Relation System.String An enum, or one of the following

comparison indicators: <<, <=, = >=, >>.

This property can be $null if the constraint

does not have a Relation and Version

property.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 41

Name Type Description

Version System.String The version to match the constraint

against. This property can be $null if the

constraint does not have a Relation and

Version property.

VersionObject SoftwareVersion The version represented by a

SoftwareVersion object.

SoftwareProvide Object Properties

The SoftwareProvide object includes the following properties.

Name Type Description

Name System.String The name of the provide.

Version System.String The version of the provide. Can be $null if

the provide does not specify a version.

Release System.String The version of the provide as represented

by a SoftwareVersion object. See

SoftwareVersion Object Properties.

vSphere ESXi Image Builder Installation and Usage

vSphere ESXi Image Builder consists of the vSphere ESXi Image Builder server and the vSphere ESXi

Image Builder PowerShell cmdlets. The vSphere ESXi Image Builder server starts when your run the first

vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlet.

Install vSphere ESXi Image Builder and Prerequisite Software

Before you can run vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets, you must install PowerCLI and all prerequisite

software. The vSphere ESXi Image Builder snap-in is included with the PowerCLI installation.

Prerequisites

If you want to manage vSphere ESXi Image Builder with PowerCLI cmdlets, verify that Microsoft .NET

Framework 4.5 or 4.5.x and Windows PowerShell 3.0 or 4.0 are installed on a Microsoft Windows system.

You can install PowerCLI on the Windows system on which vCenter Server is installed or on a different

Windows system. See the vSphere PowerCLI User's Guide.

Procedure

1Download the latest version of PowerCLI from the VMware Web site.

2Navigate to the folder that contains the PowerCLI file you downloaded and double-click the

executable file.

If the installation wizard detects an earlier version of PowerCLI on your system, it will attempt to

upgrade your existing installation

3Follow the prompts in the wizard to complete the installation.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 42

What to do next

Review Using vSphere ESXi Image Builder Cmdlets.If you are new to PowerCLI, read the PowerCLI

documentation.

Use vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets and other PowerCLI cmdlets and PowerShell cmdlets to

manage image profiles and VIBs. Use Get-Help cmdlet_name at any time for command-line help.

Conﬁgure the vSphere ESXi Image Builder Service Startup Type

Before you can use vSphere ESXi Image Builder with the vSphere Web Client, you must verify that the

service is enabled and running.

Procedure

1Log in to your vCenter Server system by using the vSphere Web Client.

2On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Administration.

3Under System Configuration click Services.

4Select ImageBuilder Service, click the Actions menu, and select Edit Startup Type.

nOn Windows, the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is disabled. In the Edit Startup Type

window, select Manual or Automatic to enable Auto Deploy.

nOn the vCenter Server Appliance, the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service by default is set to

Manual. If you want the service to start automatically upon OS startup, select Automatic.

If you select the manual startup type, you must start the service manually upon OS startup every time

you want to use the service.

5(Optional) Click the Start the service icon.

6(Optional) If you want to use vSphere ESXi Image Builder with thevSphere Web Client, log out of the

vSphere Web Client and log in again.

The Auto Deploy icon is visible on the Home page of the vSphere Web Client.

What to do next

nAdd a Software Depot.

nImport a Software Depot.

nClone an Image Profile.

nCreate an Image Profile.

Using vSphere ESXi Image Builder Cmdlets

vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets are implemented as Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets and included in

PowerCLI. Users of vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets can take advantage of all PowerCLI features.

Experienced PowerShell users can use vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets just like other PowerShell

cmdlets. If you are new to PowerShell and PowerCLI, follow these tips.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 43

You can type cmdlets, parameters, and parameter values in the PowerCLI shell.

nGet help for any cmdlet by running Get-Help cmdlet_name.

nRemember that PowerShell is not case sensitive.

nUse tab completion for cmdlet names and parameter names.

nFormat any variable and cmdlet output by using Format-List or Format-Table or their short forms

fl or ft. See Get-Help Format-List.

nUse wildcards for searching and filtering VIBs and image profiles. All wildcard expressions are

supported.

Passing Parameters by Name

You can pass in parameters by name in most cases and surround parameter values that contain spaces

or special characters with double quotes.

Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile profile42 -SoftwarePackage "partner package 35"

Passing Parameters as Objects

You can pass parameters as objects if you want to do scripting and automation. You can use the

technique with cmdlets that return multiple objects or with cmdlets that return a single object.

1 Bind the output of a cmdlet that returns multiple objects to a variable.

$profs = Get-EsxImageProfile

2 When you run the cmdlet that needs the object as input, access the object by position, with the list

starting with 0.

Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile $profs[4] -SoftwarePackage partner-pkg

The example adds the specified software package to the fifth image profile in the list returned by Get-

EsxImageProfile.

Most of the examples in the vCenter Server Installation and Setup documentation pass in parameters by

name. vSphere ESXi Image Builder Workflows includes examples that pass parameters as objects.

Using vSphere ESXi Image Builder with the vSphere Web Client

You can manage software packages (VIBs), image profiles, and software depots by using the vSphere

ESXi Image Builder service in the vSphere Web Client.

nAdd a Software Depot

Before you can work with software depots and customize image profiles, you must add one or more

software depots to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. You can add a software depot by

using the vSphere Web Client.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 44

nImport a Software Depot

If an offline depot is located on your local file system, you can import the ZIP file to the vSphere

ESXi Image Builder inventory by using the vSphere Web Client.

nClone an Image Profile

You can use the vSphere Web Client to clone image profiles. You can clone an image profile when

you want to make small changes to the VIB list in a profile, or if you want to use hosts from different

vendors and want to use the same basic profile, but want to add vendor-specific VIBs.

nCreate an Image Profile

You can create a new image profile by using the vSphere Web Client instead of cloning an existing

one. You might consider creating a new image profile if it differs significantly from the image profiles

in your inventory.

nEdit an Image Profile

You can edit image profiles by using the vSphere Web Client. You can change the name, details and

VIB list of an image profile.

nCompare Image Profiles

You can compare two image profiles by using the vSphere Web Client, for example, to see if they

have the same VIB list, version, or acceptance level.

nMove an Image Profile to a Different Software Depot

You can move image profiles between custom depots by using the vSphere Web Client. You can

move an image profile to a custom depot to edit the image profile.

nExport an Image Profile to ISO or Offline Bundle ZIP

You can export an image profile to an ISO image or a ZIP file by using the vSphere Web Client. You

can use the ISO image as an ESXi installer or to upgrade hosts with vSphere Upgrade Manager.

The ZIP file contains metadata and the VIBs of the image profile. You can use it for ESXi upgrades

or as an offline depot.

Add a Software Depot

Before you can work with software depots and customize image profiles, you must add one or more

software depots to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. You can add a software depot by using the

vSphere Web Client.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the vSphere

ESXi Image Builder Service Startup Type.

Procedure

1On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Auto Deploy.

By default, only the Administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.

2On the Software Depots tab, click the Add Software Depot icon.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 45

3Select the type of depot that you want to create.

Option Action

Online Depot a Enter the name of the depot in the inventory.

b Enter the URL of the online depot.

Custom Depot Enter the name of the depot in the inventory.

4Click OK.

What to do next

nYou can associate an image profile with a new vSphere Auto Deploy rule to provision ESXi hosts.

See Create a Deploy Rule or Clone a Deploy Rule.

nYou can associate an image profile with an ESXi host. See Add a Host to the vSphere Auto Deploy

Inventory.

nEdit the Image Profile Association of a Host.

Import a Software Depot

If an offline depot is located on your local file system, you can import the ZIP file to the vSphere ESXi

Image Builder inventory by using the vSphere Web Client.

Prerequisites

Verify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the vSphere

ESXi Image Builder Service Startup Type.

Procedure

1On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Auto Deploy.

By default, only the Administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.

2On the Software Depots tab, click the Import Software Depot icon.

3Enter the name of the software depot in the inventory.

4Click Browse and select a ZIP file from the local system, that contains the software depot you want to

import.

5Click Upload.

What to do next

nYou can associate an image profile with a new vSphere Auto Deploy rule to provision ESXi hosts.

See Create a Deploy Rule or Clone a Deploy Rule.

nYou can associate an image profile with an ESXi host. See Add a Host to the vSphere Auto Deploy

Inventory.

nEdit the Image Profile Association of a Host.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 46

Clone an Image Proﬁle

You can use the vSphere Web Client to clone image profiles. You can clone an image profile when you

want to make small changes to the VIB list in a profile, or if you want to use hosts from different vendors

and want to use the same basic profile, but want to add vendor-specific VIBs.

The acceptance level of the VIBs you add to the base image must be at least as high as the level of the

base image. If you add a VIB with a lower acceptance level to the image profile, you must lower the

image profile acceptance level. For more information, see Working with Acceptance Levels.

Prerequisites

nVerify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the

vSphere ESXi Image Builder Service Startup Type.

nAdd or import a software depot to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. See Add a Software

Depot and Import a Software Depot.

Procedure

1On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Auto Deploy.

By default, only the Administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.

2On the Software Depots tab, select the software depot that contains the image profile that you want

to work with.

3From the list of image profiles in the depot, select the image profile that you want to clone and click

Clone.

4Enter an image profile name, vendor, and description.

You must enter a unique image profile name.

5From the Software depot drop-down list, select in which custom depot to add the new image profile

and click Next.

6(Optional) From the drop-down list, select an acceptance level for the image profile.

7From the Available tab, select the VIBs that you want to add to the image profile and deselect the

ones that you want to remove.

You can view the VIBs that will be added to the image profile from the Selected tab. You can filter the

VIBs by software depot from the Software depot drop-down list on the Available tab.

Note The image profile must contain a bootable ESXi image to be valid.

8Click Next.

vSphere ESXi Image Builder verifies that the change does not invalidate the profile. Some VIBs

depend on other VIBs and become invalid if you include them in an image profile separately. When

you add or remove a VIB, vSphere ESXi Image Builder checks whether the package dependencies

are met.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 47

9On the Ready to complete page, review the summary information for the new image profile and click

Finish.

What to do next

nYou can associate an image profile with a new vSphere Auto Deploy rule to provision ESXi hosts.

See Create a Deploy Rule or Clone a Deploy Rule.

nYou can associate an image profile with an ESXi host. See Add a Host to the vSphere Auto Deploy

Inventory.

nEdit the Image Profile Association of a Host.

Create an Image Proﬁle

You can create a new image profile by using the vSphere Web Client instead of cloning an existing one.

You might consider creating a new image profile if it differs significantly from the image profiles in your

inventory.

The acceptance level of the VIBs you add to the base image must be at least as high as the level of the

base image. If you add a VIB with a lower acceptance level to the image profile, you must lower the

image profile acceptance level. For more information, see Working with Acceptance Levels.

Prerequisites

nVerify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the

vSphere ESXi Image Builder Service Startup Type.

nAdd or import a software depot to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. See Add a Software

Depot and Import a Software Depot.

Procedure

1On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Auto Deploy.

By default, only the Administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.

2On the Software Depots tab, select the custom depot in which you want to create a new image

profile.

3On the Image Profiles tab, click New Image Profile.

4Enter an image profile name, vendor, and description.

You must enter a unique image profile name.

5From the Software depot drop-down list, select in which custom depot to add the new image profile

and click Next.

6(Optional) From the drop-down list, select an acceptance level for the image profile.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 48

7From the Available tab, select the VIBs that you want to add to the image profile and deselect the

ones that you want to remove.

You can view the VIBs that will be added to the image profile from the Selected tab. You can filter the

VIBs by software depot from the Software depot drop-down list on the Available tab.

Note The image profile must contain a bootable ESXi image to be valid.

8Click Next.

vSphere ESXi Image Builder verifies that the change does not invalidate the profile. Some VIBs are

dependent on others and will not be valid if you include them in an image profile separately. When

you add or remove a VIB, vSphere ESXi Image Builder checks that package dependencies are met.

9On the Ready to complete page, review the summary information for the new image profile and click

Finish.

What to do next

nYou can associate an image profile with a new vSphere Auto Deploy rule to provision ESXi hosts.

See Create a Deploy Rule or Clone a Deploy Rule.

nYou can associate an image profile with an ESXi host. See Add a Host to the vSphere Auto Deploy

Inventory.

nEdit the Image Profile Association of a Host.

Edit an Image Proﬁle

You can edit image profiles by using the vSphere Web Client. You can change the name, details and VIB

list of an image profile.

The acceptance level of the VIBs you add to the base image must be at least as high as the level of the

base image. If you add a VIB with a lower acceptance level to the image profile, you must lower the

image profile acceptance level. For more information, see Working with Acceptance Levels.

Prerequisites

nVerify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the

vSphere ESXi Image Builder Service Startup Type.

nAdd or import a software depot to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. See Add a Software

Depot and Import a Software Depot.

nVerify that there is at least one custom depot in the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory.

Procedure

1On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Auto Deploy.

By default, only the Administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.

2On the Software Depots tab, select the software depot that contains the image profile that you want

to work with.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 49

3On the Image Profiles tab, select the image profile that you want to edit and click Edit.

4(Optional) Change the name, vendor and description information of the image profile.

5Click Next.

6From the Available tab, select the VIBs that you want to add to the image profile and deselect the

ones that you want to remove.

You can view the VIBs that will be added to the image profile from the Selected tab. You can filter the

VIBs by software depot from the Software depot drop-down list on the Available tab.

Note The image profile must contain a bootable ESXi image to be valid.

7Click Next.

vSphere ESXi Image Builder verifies that the change does not invalidate the profile. Some VIBs

depend on other VIBs and become invalid if you include them in an image profile separately. When

you add or remove a VIB, vSphere ESXi Image Builder checks whether the package dependencies

are met.

8On the Ready to complete page, review the summary information for the edited image profile and

click Finish.

What to do next

nYou can associate an image profile with a new vSphere Auto Deploy rule to provision ESXi hosts.

See Create a Deploy Rule or Clone a Deploy Rule.

nYou can associate an image profile with an ESXi host. See Add a Host to the vSphere Auto Deploy

Inventory.

nEdit the Image Profile Association of a Host.

Compare Image Proﬁles

You can compare two image profiles by using the vSphere Web Client, for example, to see if they have

the same VIB list, version, or acceptance level.

Prerequisites

nVerify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the

vSphere ESXi Image Builder Service Startup Type.

nAdd or import a software depot to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. See Add a Software

Depot and Import a Software Depot.

Procedure

1On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Auto Deploy.

By default, only the Administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.

2On the Software Depots tab, select the software depot that contains the image profile that you want

to work with.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 50

3On the Image Profiles tab, select the image profile that you want to compare and click Compare To.

4In the Compare Image Profile dialog box, from the Software Depot drop-down menu, select the

software depot that contains the second image profile that you want to compare.

5From the Image Profile drop-down menu, select the second image profile that you want to compare.

6Under Software Packages, on the All tab, view the comparison of the two image profiles.

The left side of the list displays the names, versions, acceptance levels, and vendors of the VIBs that

the first chosen image profile contains. The right part of the list provides information about the second

image profile. The VIBs marked with no change are the same in both profiles. VIBs that are present

in only one of the image profiles are marked missing in the image profile that they are not present in.

Move an Image Proﬁle to a Dierent Software Depot

You can move image profiles between custom depots by using the vSphere Web Client. You can move an

image profile to a custom depot to edit the image profile.

Prerequisites

nVerify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the

vSphere ESXi Image Builder Service Startup Type.

nAdd or import a software depot to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. See Add a Software

Depot and Import a Software Depot.

nVerify that there is at least one custom depot in the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory.

Procedure

1On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Auto Deploy.

By default, only the Administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.

2On the Software Depots tab, select the software depot that contains the image profile that you want

to work with.

3On the Image Profiles tab, select an image profile and click Move to.

4From the drop-down list, select the custom depot in which you want to move the image profile.

5Click OK.

Export an Image Proﬁle to ISO or Oine Bundle ZIP

You can export an image profile to an ISO image or a ZIP file by using the vSphere Web Client. You can

use the ISO image as an ESXi installer or to upgrade hosts with vSphere Upgrade Manager. The ZIP file

contains metadata and the VIBs of the image profile. You can use it for ESXi upgrades or as an offline

depot.

Prerequisites

nVerify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the

vSphere ESXi Image Builder Service Startup Type.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 51

nAdd or import a software depot to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. See Add a Software

Depot and Import a Software Depot.

Procedure

1On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Auto Deploy.

By default, only the Administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.

2On the Software Depots tab, select the software depot that contains the image profile that you want

to work with.

3On the Image Profiles tab, select the image profile that you want to export and click Export Image

Profile.

4Select the type of the exported file.

Option Description

ISO Exports the image profile to a bootable ISO image. If you want to create an ISO

image that you can burn to a CD or DVD and use to boot up a stateless ESXi

instance, select the Do not include an installer on the ISO check box.

ZIP Exports the image profile to a ZIP file.

5(Optional) If you want to bypass the acceptance level verification of the image profile, select Skip

acceptance level checking.

6Click the Generate image button.

7When the image generates successfully, click Download to download the exported file.

8Click Close.

Using vSphere ESXi Image Builder with PowerCLI Cmdlets

The vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets allow you to manipulate software depots, image profiles, and

VIBs.

Clone an Image Proﬁle

Cloning a published profile is the easiest way to create a custom image profile. Cloning a profile is

especially useful if you want to remove a few VIBs from a profile, or if you want to use hosts from different

vendors and want to use the same basic profile, but want to add vendor-specific VIBs. VMware partners

or large installations might consider creating a new profile.

Prerequisites

nInstall the PowerCLI and all prerequisite software. See vSphere ESXi Image Builder Installation and

Usage.

nVerify that you have access to the software depot that contains the image profile you want to clone.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 52

Procedure

1In a PowerCLI session, run the Add-EsxSoftwareDepot cmdlet for each depot you want to work

with.

Option Action

Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl depot_url.

ZIP file a Download the ZIP file to a local file system.

b Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\file_path\offline-

bundle.zip

The cmdlet returns one or more SoftwareDepot objects.

2(Optional) Run the Get-EsxImageProfile cmdlet to find the name of the profile that you want to

clone.

You can use filtering options with Get-EsxImageProfile.

3Run the New-EsxImageProfile cmdlet to create the new profile and use the -CloneProfile

parameter to specify the profile you want to clone.

New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile My_Profile -Name "Test Profile 42"

This example clones the profile named My_Profile and assigns it the name Test Profile 42. You must

specify a unique combination of name and vendor for the cloned profile.

What to do next

See Examine Depot Contents for some examples of filtering.

Customize the image profile by adding or removing VIBs. See Add VIBs to an Image Profile.

Add VIBs to an Image Proﬁle

You can add one or more VIBs to an image profile if that image profile is not set to read only. If the new

VIB depends on other VIBs or conflicts with other VIBs in the profile, a message is displayed at the

PowerShell prompt and the VIB is not added.

You can add VIBs from VMware or from VMware partners to an image profile. If you add VMware VIBs,

vSphere ESXi Image Builder performs validation. If you add VIBs from two or more OEM partners

simultaneously, no errors are reported but the resulting image profile might not work. Install VIBs from

only one OEM vendor at a time.

If an error about acceptance level problems appears, change the acceptance level of the image profile

and the acceptance level of the host. Consider carefully whether changing the host acceptance level is

appropriate. VIB acceptance levels are set during VIB creation and cannot be changed.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 53

You can add VIBs even if the resulting image profile is invalid.

Note VMware can support only environments and configurations that are proven to be stable and fully

functional through rigorous and extensive testing. Use only those supported configurations. You can use

custom VIBs if you lower your host acceptance level, and as a result, supportability. In that case, track the

changes you made, so you can revert them if you want to remove custom VIBs and restore the host

acceptance level to the default (Partner Supporter) later. See Working with Acceptance Levels.

Prerequisites

Install the PowerCLI and all prerequisite software. See Install vSphere ESXi Image Builder and

Prerequisite Software

Procedure

1In a PowerCLI session, run the Add-EsxSoftwareDepot cmdlet for each depot you want to work

with.

Option Action

Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl depot_url.

ZIP file a Download the ZIP file to a local file system.

b Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\file_path\offline-

bundle.zip

The cmdlet returns one or more SoftwareDepot objects.

2Run the Get-EsxImageProfile cmdlet to list all image profiles in all currently visible depots.

The cmdlet returns all available profiles. You can narrow your search by using the optional arguments

to filter the output.

3Clone the profile.

New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile My_Profile -Name "Test Profile 42" -Vendor "My Vendor"

Image profiles published by VMware and its partners are read only. To make changes, you must

clone the image profile. The vendor parameter is required.

4Run the Add-EsxSoftwarePackage cmdlet to add a new package to one of the image profiles.

Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile My_Profile -SoftwarePackage partner-package

The cmdlet runs the standard validation tests on the image profile. If validation succeeds, the cmdlet

returns a modified, validated image profile. If the VIB that you want to add depends on a different VIB,

the cmdlet displays that information and includes the VIB that would resolve the dependency. If the

acceptance level of the VIB that you want to add is lower than the image profile acceptance level, an

error occurs.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 54

Export an Image Proﬁle to ISO or Oine Bundle ZIP

You can export an image profile to an ISO image or a ZIP file of component files and folders. You cannot

create both by running the cmdlet once. You can use the ISO image as an ESXi installer or upload the

ISO into vSphere Update Manager for upgrades. You can use the ZIP file, which contains metadata and

the VIBs specified in the image profile, for upgrades to ESXi 5.0 and later.

Prerequisites

Install the PowerCLI and all prerequisite software. See Install vSphere ESXi Image Builder and

Prerequisite Software.

Procedure

1In a PowerCLI session, run the Add-EsxSoftwareDepot cmdlet for each depot you want to work

with.

Option Action

Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl depot_url.

ZIP file a Download the ZIP file to a local file system.

b Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\file_path\offline-

bundle.zip

The cmdlet returns one or more SoftwareDepot objects.

2Run Export-EsxImageProfile to export the image profile.

Export Format Cmdlet

ISO images Export-EsxImageProfile with the -ExportToIso parameter

Offline depot ZIP files Export-EsxImageProfile with the -ExportToBundle parameter

For the ISO image, vSphere ESXi Image Builder validates VIB signatures, adds VIB binaries to the

image, and downloads the image to the specified location. For the ZIP file, vSphere ESXi Image Builder

validates VIB signatures and downloads the VIB binaries to the specified location.

Example: Exporting an Image Proﬁle

Follow these steps to export an image profile to an ISO image.

1 Add the software depot.

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl url_or_file

2 View all available image profiles to find the name of the image profile to export.

Get-EsxImageProfile

3 Export the image profile.

Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile "myprofile" -ExportToIso -FilePath iso_name

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 55

Follow these steps to export an image profile to a ZIP file of component files and folders.

1 Add the software depot.

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl url_or_file

2 View all available image profiles to find the name of the image profile to export.

Get-EsxImageProfile

3 Export the image profile.

Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile "myprofile" -ExportToBundle -FilePath C:\my_bundle.zip

What to do next

Use the ISO image in an ESXi installation or upload the ISO image into vSphereUpdate Manager to

perform upgrades.

Use the ZIP file to upgrade an ESXi installation.

nImport the ZIP file into vSphere Update Manager for use with patch baselines.

nDownload the ZIP file to an ESXi host or a datastore and run esxcli software vib commands to

import the VIBs in the ZIP file.

See the vSphere Upgrade documentation.

Preserve Image Proﬁles Across Sessions

When you create an image profile and exit the PowerCLI session, the image profile is no longer available

when you start a new session. You can export the image profile to a ZIP file software depot, and add that

depot in the next session.

Prerequisites

Install the PowerCLI and all prerequisite software. See Install vSphere ESXi Image Builder and

Prerequisite Software.

Procedure

1In a PowerCLI session, create an image profile, for example by cloning an existing image profile and

adding a VIB.

2Export the image profile to a ZIP file by calling Export-EsxImageProfile with the ExportToBundle

parameter.

Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile "my_profile" -ExportToBundle -FilePath

"C:\isos\temp-base-plus-vib25.zip"

3Exit the PowerCLI session.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 56

4When you start a new PowerCLI session, add the depot that contains your image profile to access it.

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot "C:\isos\temp-base-plus-vib25.zip"

Compare Image Proﬁles

You can compare two image profiles by using the Compare-EsxImageProfile cmdlet, for example, to

see if they have the same VIB list or acceptance level . Comparing image profiles or their properties is

also possible by using the PowerShell comparison operators.

Prerequisites

Install the PowerCLI and all prerequisite software. See Install vSphere ESXi Image Builder and

Prerequisite Software.

Procedure

1In a PowerCLI session, run the Add-EsxSoftwareDepot cmdlet for each depot you want to work

with.

Option Action

Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl depot_url.

ZIP file a Download the ZIP file to a local file system.

b Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\file_path\offline-

bundle.zip

The cmdlet returns one or more SoftwareDepot objects.

2(Optional) Run the Get-EsxImageProfile cmdlet to view a list of all image profiles in all available

depots.

In the list, you can locate the names of the image profiles you want to compare.

3Before comparing the image profiles, assign them to variables.

For example, you can create variables $imageProfile1 and $imageProfile2 to hold the names of

the compared images profiles.

$imageProfile1

= Get-EsxImageProfile -Name "ImageProfile1"

$imageProfile2

= Get-EsxImageProfile -Name "ImageProfile2"

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 57

4Compare the two image profiles by using the Compare-EsxImageProfile cmdlet or the -eq

comparison operator, which returns a Boolean value.

nCompare the two image profiles to get a full description of the differences by using the Compare-

EsxImageProfile cmdlet.

Compare-EsxImageProfile -ReferenceProfile

$imageProfile1 -ComparisonProfile $imageProfile2

nCompare the two image profiles by VIB list and acceptance level using the -eq comparison

operator.

if ($imageProfile1 -eq $imageProfile2) {

Write-host "Successfully verified that both image profiles are equal."

} else {

Write-host "Failed to verify that the image profiles are equal."

}

nCompare the two image profiles by a specific property using the -eq comparison operator.

if ($imageProfile1.vendor -eq $imageProfile2.vendor) {

Write-host "Successfully verified that both image profiles are equal."

} else {

Write-host "Failed to verify that the image profiles are equal."

}

Compare VIBs

You can compare two VIBs or their properties by using the PowerShell comparison operators.

Prerequisites

Install the PowerCLI and all prerequisite software. See Install vSphere ESXi Image Builder and

Prerequisite Software.

Procedure

1In a PowerCLI session, run the Add-EsxSoftwareDepot cmdlet for each depot you want to work

with.

Option Action

Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl depot_url.

ZIP file a Download the ZIP file to a local file system.

b Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\file_path\offline-

bundle.zip

The cmdlet returns one or more SoftwareDepot objects.

2(Optional) Run the Get-EsxSoftwarePackage cmdlet to view all available VIBs.

In the list, you can locate the names of the VIBs you want to compare.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 58

3Before comparing the VIBs, assign them to variables.

For example, you can create variables $vib1 and $vib2 to hold the names of the compared VIBs.

$vib1 = Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Name "ReferenceVIB"

$vib2 = Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Name "ComparisonVIB"

4Use a comparison operator to compare the VIBs by contents and acceptance level or by a specific

property.

nCompare the two VIBs by their contents and acceptance level.

if ($vib1 -eq $vib2) {

Write-host "Successfully verified that both VIBs are equal."

} else {

Write-host "Failed to verify that the VIBs are equal."

}

nCompare a specific property of the VIBs by using a comparison operator such as -eq, -lt, -le, -

gt or -ge.

if ($vib1.VersionObject -lt $vib2.VersionObject) {

Write-host "Successfully verified that both the VIBs are equal."

} else {

Write-host "Failed to verify that the VIBs are equal."

}

Working with Acceptance Levels

Hosts, image profiles, and individual VIBs have acceptance levels. VIB acceptance levels show how the

VIB was tested. Understanding what each acceptance level implies, how to change levels, and what a

change implies is an important part of installation and update procedures.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 59

Acceptance levels are set for hosts, image profiles, and individual VIBs. The default acceptance level for

an ESXi image or image profile is PartnerSupported.

Host acceptance levels The host acceptance level determines which VIBs you can install on a host.

You can change a host's acceptance level with ESXCLI commands. By

default, ESXi hosts have an acceptance level of PartnerSupported to allow

for easy updates with PartnerSupported VIBs.

Note VMware supports hosts at the PartnerSupported acceptance level.

For problems with individual VIBs with PartnerSupported acceptance level,

contact your partner's support organization.

Image profile

acceptance levels

The image profile acceptance level is set to the lowest VIB acceptance

level in the image profile. If you want to add a VIB with a low acceptance

level to an image profile, you can change the image profile acceptance

level with the Set-EsxImageProfile cmdlet. See Set the Image Profile

Acceptance Level.

The vSphere Update Manager does not display the actual acceptance

level. Use vSphere ESXi Image Builder cmdlets to retrieve the acceptance

level information for VIBs and image profiles.

VIB acceptance levels A VIB's acceptance level is set when the VIB is created. Only the VIB

creator can set the acceptance level.

If you attempt to provision a host with an image profile or VIB that has a lower acceptance level than the

host, an error occurs. Change the acceptance level of the host to install the image profile or VIB. See

Change the Host Acceptance Level. Changing the acceptance level of the host changes the support level

for that host.

The acceptance level of a host, image profile, or VIB lets you determine who tested the VIB and who

supports the VIB. VMware supports the following acceptance levels .

VMwareCertified The VMwareCertified acceptance level has the most stringent

requirements. VIBs with this level go through thorough testing fully

equivalent to VMware in-house Quality Assurance testing for the same

technology. Today, only I/O Vendor Program (IOVP) program drivers are

published at this level. VMware takes support calls for VIBs with this

acceptance level.

VMwareAccepted VIBs with this acceptance level go through verification testing, but the tests

do not fully test every function of the software. The partner runs the tests

and VMware verifies the result. Today, CIM providers and PSA plug-ins are

among the VIBs published at this level. VMware directs support calls for

VIBs with this acceptance level to the partner's support organization.

VMware ESXi Installation and Setup

VMware, Inc. 60