Media Options For Booting The Esxi Installer - VMware VS4-ENT-PL-A - vSphere Enterprise Plus Setup Manual

The evaluation period is 60 days and begins when you turn on the ESXi host, even if you start in licensed
mode rather than evaluation mode. Any time during the 60-day evaluation period, you can convert from
licensed mode to evaluation mode. To take full advantage of the 60-day evaluation period, you should
convert to evaluation mode as soon as possible after you first power on the host.
For information about managing licensing and setting an ESXi host to evaluation mode, see the vCenter
Server and Host Management documentation.

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:
Boot from a CD/DVD. See
n
page 125.
Boot from a USB flash drive. See
n
on page 125.
PXE boot from the network.
n
Boot from a remote location using a remote management application. See
n
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
ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script,"
Procedure
1 Download the ISO image for ESXi from the VMware download page at
http://www.vmware.com/download/.
2 Burn 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.
These instructions assume that you are performing the procedure on a Linux machine and that the USB
flash drive is detected by the operating system as
N The file containing the installation script cannot be located on the same USB flash drive that you
ks
OTE
are using to boot the installation or upgrade.
Prerequisites
From the VMware Web site, download the ESXi ISO image
n
XXXXXX.x86_64.iso
installing, and
Verify that the machine on which you are performing this procedure has access to syslinux version 3.86.
n
This procedure requires syslinux version 3.86.
VMware, Inc.
"Download and Burn the ESXi Installer ISO Image to a CD or DVD,"
"Format a USB Flash Drive to Boot the ESXi Installation or Upgrade,"
"PXE Booting the ESXi Installer,"
on page 136
, including the file
isolinux.cfg
is the build number of the installer ISO image.
XXXXXX
on page 129
on page 128.
.
/dev/sdb
VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.x.x-
, where is the version of ESXi you are
5.x.x
Chapter 6 Before You Install ESXi
on
"Using Remote Management
"Create an Installer
125