A very simple subject but whilst setting up my home VCP5 setup I had the requirement of getting the hypervisor installed on a USB key without burning it to a CD to use in the destination server – For those with iLO or equivalent you can continue browsing more interesting parts of the Internet – but to achieve this mean feat my instructions are as follows:-
Fire up VMware Workstation
Create a VM with no HDD and no network adapters, but added a USB controller
Start the VM with a long boot delay, enough for me to attach the USB key to the VM once the VM was powered up and attached the ESXi 5 installer ISO to the CD drive of the vm.
Let the VM boot and viola, you’ll be installing to the USB key of the VM from your installation media.
You can then take said key to your machine of choice (remember this isn’t supported in production by VMware unless you’re using a manufacturer provided and somewhat costly ESXi USB key) and fire up your new ESXi host from the key.
Sorted me out anyways!
Ciao for now
P x
