- #Create bootable vmware esxi 5 usb how to
- #Create bootable vmware esxi 5 usb install
- #Create bootable vmware esxi 5 usb full
- #Create bootable vmware esxi 5 usb software
Wait for it to say “Install only (no Live)”.
#Create bootable vmware esxi 5 usb install
If you want to make a bootable USB key from an install CD, click on “CD”. If you downloaded an ISO image, click on “ISO / IMG / ZIP” and browse to the location of the image, then select it. In Step 2, choose the image you want to install on the USB drive. It will look something like this:Ĭlick on the drop-down menu in Step 1 and select your USB drive. Once it’s complete, type the following commands in diskpart to make sure the USB drive is assigned a drive letter and exit diskpart: assign The quick version of the format will be almost instant, but is less thorough.
#Create bootable vmware esxi 5 usb full
On my system, the full format of a 1GB USB drive took about 4 minutes. If, however, you’re already at the customer site and need to do the install right now, type the following command in diskpart: format fs=fat32 quick If you’re creating your USB key the night before you’re going to perform your vSphere installation, type the following command in diskpart, which will do a full format: format fs=fat32
#Create bootable vmware esxi 5 usb software
Now, you’ll clean the USB drive and select the partition that you’ll be installing the software on by typing the following commands in diskpart: clean Diskpart sees “Disk 1” as 962MB (it’s common to see rounding differences like this), so the command I would type in diskpart is: select disk 1 As you can see, it’s a 1GB drive (Windows sees 961MB):Ĭompare this to the info in from the diskpart “list disk” command above. In the diskpart utility, type the following command: select disk įor example, the drive I’m using is highlighted in the explorer view below. You want to make sure you get the next step right - you want to format the USB key, not your hard drive… Use this view to double-check the size information for the USB drive you’re using and compare it to the response of the diskpart “list disk” command. Open Windows Explorer and select “Computer” in the left-hand pane. In the new window that pops up, type the following command: list disk Depending on how your Windows system is configured, you may get prompted to give diskpart permission to run. The program needs to be run as Administrator. Select “cmd.exe” when it shows up.) In the window that pops up, type the following command: diskpart (Click on Start, and type “cmd” in the search box. During the process, you’ll be reformatting the drive. If there’s any data on it that you want to keep, save a copy now. Plug the thumb drive you want to use into your laptop’s USB port. It will show up on your Start Menu as “LiLi USB Creator”. Keep note of where you save it.ĭownload and install the Linux Live USB Creator. A copy of the Linux Live USB Creator utility - you can download it hereĭownload the vSphere ISO matching the version you want to install.The vSphere ISO you want to install - you can download the latest version from VMware: licensed copies here and free evaluation copies here.(The vSphere 5.1 installation media will end being between 290 and 330MB, so a 1GB drive will do just fine.) This post will walk you through the process. It turns out you can use your Windows system to create the installation media, and it’s pretty easy. The thing is, the instructions I could find were for using a Linux system to create the key and my work-issued laptop runs Windows.
#Create bootable vmware esxi 5 usb how to
VMware’s online documentation describes how to do this. It turns out the easiest solution in this situation is to convert a USB thumb drive into a bootable installation key. I came across this situation at a customer site recently. Have you ever wanted to install ESXi on a host that doesn’t have a CD-ROM drive? Maybe you also don’t have a TFTP server, so installing over the network isn’t an option either.