In a previous post I blogged about creating a vanilla vSphere 5 ESXi USB drive using the VMware .iso file from VMware. This post shows how to create one using the HP version of vSphere ESXi (5.0_Oct_2011_ESXi_HD-USB-SDImgeInstlr_Z7550-00253.iso).
Note: (You can use any vendor customized vSphere ESXi .iso file: VMware, Dell and IBM).
The HP version comes pre-installed with all the HP CIM providers which work very well with HP servers, including the HP MicroServer. Using the HP version gives you the more details in the Hardware Status tab.
I’m going to be using a different method, recommended by Will Rodbard (thanks Will), who is a colleague of mine at VMware, you can see his comments from the previous post. In summary the steps are:
-
Find and download the following tools:
- Run the HPUSBFW tool, click on the USB drive, select ‘Fat32′ and click Format
- Run UNETBOOTIN, select Diskimage and browse to the ESXi 5 ISO file
- Select the USB drive you have just formatted and click OK
- If you want to make more USB keys for more servers, then now is the time to create .IMG files using WinImage, then you can basically clone the image of the USB key to more USB keys. Or if you don’t wish to use WinImage then just perform steps 1 to 4 again.
Once completed your USB drive will boot into the ESXi 5 installer. Once booted, install the ESXi 5 Hypervisor to the USB drive (overwriting the installer). This will then leave you with the installed ESXi Hypervisor on the USB.
Note that using this method creates a brand new bootable USB key for use in a new installation of vSphere ESXi. You will have to go through the process of installing ESXi onto the USB key, or another disk or LUN on the target server. If you want a USB key that is already installed with ESXi which saves you from going through the installation wizard, you can use the other method in this post.
[Aside]
I coincidently left an older USB key in my laptop and booted. Here’s a picture of my Macbook Pro running vSphere ESXi, and it all works by the way, including networking!
Hugo – using WinImage to copy the USB key means that the virtual MAC address is the same on all USB keys. Not always an issue but if you have more than one server on the same switch it causes all kinds of issues – had this in our test area.
Posted by Mark Aggleton | March 20, 2012, 11:02Hi Mark, yes it will cause issues but if you log onto the local console once ESXi has finished booting and launch the ‘Restore Network Settings’. This will reset the vmk0 or vmk1 (depending on your setup) interface.
Posted by Hugo Phan | March 20, 2012, 11:06Thanks for that – I’d just built them all manually eventually.
Posted by Mark Aggleton | March 20, 2012, 11:10Thanks. But this method is not working for me. I have tried with HP’s ESXs’ versions namely:
5.0_Mar_2012_ESXi_HD-USB-SDImgeInstlr_Z7550-00334.ISO
and
5.0_U1_Mar_2012_ESXi_HD-USB-SDImgeInstlr_Z7550-00352.ISO
In both the above cases, the disk is created successfully. When I reboot the system, the system boots from USB but while trying to load ubninit file, the system reboots itself
But when I try with the stock VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.0.0-469512.x86_64.ISO from VMWare, it just works fine as expected.
What is wrong with my approach ?
Posted by Prashant | April 3, 2012, 15:35Same for me…
Posted by Chris | April 17, 2012, 13:21Thanks for the feedback. This post was done using 5.0_Oct_2011_ESXi_HD-USB-SDImgeInstlr_Z7550-00253.iso. I’ve not tried using Update 1, for that it may be better to use this method instead: http://vmwire.com/2011/09/11/creating-vsphere-5-esxi-embedded-usb-stick/. Not tried this myself though.
Posted by Hugo Phan | April 28, 2012, 09:37same here, any ideas?
Posted by Thomas | April 24, 2012, 09:39same issue as the three posters above.
Posted by ben | April 28, 2012, 04:28even the oct2011 one does the same thing. I wonder if we are all trying this on a HP n40l server?
Posted by ben | April 28, 2012, 18:44Well i’m back again, but this time with good news.
When you chose the .iso in unetbootin, the drop down (floppy/iso) changes to floppy. Change it back to .iso and even the latest hp .iso’s worked for me. I was using unetbootin-windows-575.
Posted by ben | April 29, 2012, 03:05Yes, that does the job… Thanks..
Posted by Chris | April 30, 2012, 09:40Thanks for sharing Ben.
Posted by Hugo Phan | April 30, 2012, 09:48Thank you, you helped me a lot!
Posted by Martin | January 30, 2013, 16:03Hey Hugo, WillyBoy here,
I just downloaded the newest version of the ISO from HP
(5.0_U1_Mar_2012_ESXi_HD-USB-SDImgeInstlr_Z7550-00352.iso)
and I ran in to, what I think, may be similar issues to the other guys.
I tried the “changing from iso-to-floppy-to-iso” trick in unetbootin with no joy. I even tried downloading the slightly older, non-update 1 image, also to no avail.
I don’t think unetbootin liked the original HP file name as the software would become unresponsive on the first section () and then skip rapidly to the end and instead of all of the ESXi source files on the usb key there would only be the following files:
ldlinux.sys
menu.c32
syslinux.cfg
ubninit
ubnkern
What worked for me was renaming the iso file that I had downloaded.
Original filename:
5.0_U1_Mar_2012_ESXi_HD-USB-SDImgeInstlr_Z7550-00352.iso
New filename:
VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.0.0.update01-623860.x86_64_Z7550-00352.iso
Now Obviously I just nicked the original VMware name and replaced most of the HP file name, I think anything short would probably do.
Hope this helps anyone else stuck with the new image
Will.
Posted by Will | May 2, 2012, 18:13WillyBoy your spot on. I just renamed iso as “image.iso” and all worked perfectly. Thank you so much wasted the last 2 hours on this!
Posted by alaw005 | June 6, 2012, 11:26Thanks for the article (and comments regarding renaming the ISO). I’ve been able to install a function esxi config on my Microserver, however in vsphere under configuration/health I’m not getting any hardware status. The only two items listed are processors and software. Have I missed a step as part of the install?
Posted by justin | June 16, 2012, 02:49Justin,
Sounds like the HP CIM agents aren’t seeing the hardware correctly? I don’t think you have missed a step as it either works or doesn’t. I would go back and start from scratch.
Wow, that wasn’t much help was it? sorry ><
W.
Posted by Will | July 24, 2012, 11:45Is this esxi free? I always thought the “i” edition was free, you only paid for the extra bells and whistles such as vpshere centre (or whatever it is called these days) I’m asking because I downloaded ESXi 5.1 and after installing it and getting a message that it is in evaluation mode for 60 days and I need to enter a license key.
To download the image I had to sign up with vmware and do have a key and but when I use vsphere client to connect to my host I do not see the licensing section in Administration.
Can someone give my guidance?? I’m OK on the basics of vmware and esx but the terminology and new names they give always confuse my brain.
Thanks
Edgar
Posted by Edgar | October 13, 2012, 19:55@edgar: you get a serial from vmware, they just want to know who uses its software
Posted by kim | October 18, 2012, 14:00my installed stopped at memory_size error: this host has 1.87 Gib of ram. 1.97 are needed. so I reduced video ram from 128 to 32 (lowest) and this time it stopped saying …error: this host has 1.97 Gib of ram. 1.97 needed. Ugh. guess I have to spend more money for ram. I expected to do that, but didn’t want to till I saw this puppy working.
Posted by dbmuse | December 1, 2012, 01:58With the latest HP ESXi 5 and 5.1 images, copying the installer image onto the USB key works fine… but then installing back on to the USB stick doesnt seem to work. It installs just fine, but is then not bootable. The ESXi install repartitions the USB stick which then becomes unbootable.
Posted by Technogenus | May 8, 2013, 02:13