ESXi Server 5.5 Install

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1. Attach the DVD to your server – in this example a HP DL385 G1 was used which has an onboard “ILO” Management Card. This is quite an old server, and should see a more modern UI on a contemporary system. In this case the HP ILO’s “Virtual Media” feature was used to mount the VMware ESXi DVD .ISO to the physical host, and the host powered on. By default the VMware ESXi host installer pauses briefly for 10seconds at this boot menu screen.

2. After this the install will continue to load the files required for installation.

3. Once completed the kernel that makes up VMware ESXi (referred to as the VMKernel) is loaded.

4. Once the system load has completed, you will see the welcome screen

5. And the obligatory EULA – pressing [F11] Accepts and Continues this.

6. Next you will need select a disk to hold the VMware ESXi software. In this case we have rather foolish allow the physical server to see storage on the FC-SAN this is very dangerous.

7. It is possible to select each disk/volume/LUN and request details with [F1]

8. If a disk is selected which already contains a VMware File System (VMFS) and this is an existing installation – you will have option to either upgrade and keep the VMs; carry out a clean installation but preserve the VMFS file system from the previous installation – or completely re-install and wipe the system.

9. Select your language.

10. Set the password for the “root” user account. The installer does not enforce or warning you about complexity. So very simple passwords such as Password1 will work.

11. If you are working on a very old server or a server who settings have not been correctly configured you will recieve warnings about lack of support for CPU extensions that improve performance or security. In this case the AMD chipset does not support the AMD-V attributes.

12. Finally, you are given one last chance to abort the installation.

13. Then the installer will copy the software to the disk/volume/LUN you selected earlier.

14. At the end of the install pressing [ENTER] will trigger a reboot – be sure to eject or close any mounted .ISO or physical DVD in the server.

15. After the reboot you should be confronted with the VMware ESXi “Direct User Console Interface” (DUCI). This allows a number of post-configuration tasks to take place, and also be used as one method of troubleshooting an ESXi host if become unresponsive. Notice how by default VMware ESXi defaults to using DHCP, and will receive a DHCP delivered IP address if the service exists on your network.