Installing Esxi; Installing Esxi Interactively - VMware VS4-ENT-PL-A - vSphere Enterprise Plus Setup Manual

Installing ESXi

You can install ESXi interactively, with a scripted installation, or with vSphere Auto Deploy.
This chapter includes the following topics:

"Installing ESXi Interactively,"

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"Installing, Upgrading, or Migrating Hosts Using a Script,"
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"Installing ESXi Using vSphere Auto Deploy,"
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"Using vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI,"
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Installing ESXi Interactively
Use the interactive installation option for small deployments of less than five hosts.
In a typical interactive installation, you boot the ESXi installer and respond to the installer prompts to install
ESXi to the local host disk. The installer reformats and partitions the target disk and installs the ESXi boot
image. If you have not installed ESXi on the target disk before, all data located on the drive is overwritten,
including hardware vendor partitions, operating system partitions, and associated data.
N To ensure that you do not lose any data, migrate the data to another machine before you install ESXi.
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If you are installing ESXi on a disk that contains a previous installation of ESXi or ESX, or a VMFS datastore,
the installer provides you with options for upgrading. See the vSphere Upgrade documentation.
Install ESXi Interactively
You use the ESXi CD/DVD or a USB flash drive to install the ESXi software onto a SAS, SATA, SCSI hard
drive, or USB drive.
Prerequisites
You must have the ESXi installer ISO in one of the following locations:
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On CD or DVD. If you do not have the installation CD/DVD, you can create one. See
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and Burn the ESXi Installer ISO Image to a CD or DVD,"
On a USB flash drive. See
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page 125.
N You can also PXE boot the ESXi installer to launch an interactive installation or a scripted
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installation. See
Verify that the server hardware clock is set to UTC. This setting is in the system BIOS.
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VMware, Inc.
on page 139
"Format a USB Flash Drive to Boot the ESXi Installation or Upgrade,"
"PXE Booting the ESXi Installer,"
on page 142
on page 157
on page 225
on page 125
on page 129.
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on
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