Mastering VMware vSphere 6. Marshall Nick

System (VMFS) datastores, if any, are present on it, as shown in Figure 2.5. Press Enter to return to the device-selection screen when you have finished reviewing the information for the selected device.

      8. Use the arrow keys to select the device on which you are going to install ESXi, and press Enter.

      9. If the selected device includes a VMFS datastore or an installation of ESXi, you’ll be prompted to choose what action you want to take, as illustrated in Figure 2.6. Select the desired action and press Enter.

      These are the available actions:

      • Upgrade ESXi, Preserve VMFS Datastore: This option upgrades to ESXi 6 and preserves the existing VMFS datastore.

      • Install ESXi, Preserve VMFS Datastore: This option installs a fresh copy of ESXi 6 and preserves the existing VMFS datastore.

      • Install ESXi, Overwrite VMFS Datastore: This option overwrites the existing VMFS datastore with a new one and installs a fresh installation of ESXi 6.

      10. Select the desired keyboard layout and press Enter.

      11. Enter (and confirm) a password for the root account. Press Enter when you are ready to continue with the installation. Be sure to make note of this password – you’ll need it later.

      12. At the final confirmation screen, press F11 to proceed with the installation of ESXi.

      After the installation process begins, it takes only a few minutes to install ESXi onto the selected storage device.

      13. Press Enter to reboot the host at the Installation Complete screen.

Figure 2.5 Checking to see if there are any VMFS datastores on a device can help you avoid accidentally overwriting data.

Figure 2.6 You can upgrade or install ESXi as well as choose to preserve or overwrite an existing VMFS datastore.

      After the host reboots, ESXi is installed. ESXi is configured by default to obtain an IP address via Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). Depending on the network configuration, you might find that ESXi will not be able to obtain an IP address via DHCP. Later in this chapter, in the section “Reconfiguring the Management Network,” we’ll discuss how to correct networking problems after installing ESXi by using the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI).

      VMware also provides support for scripted installations of ESXi. As you’ve already seen, there isn’t a lot of interaction required to install ESXi, but support for scripting the installation of ESXi reduces the time to deploy even further.

      Interactively installing esxi from usb or across the network

      As an alternative to launching the ESXi installer from the installation CD/DVD, you can install ESXi from a USB flash drive or across the network via Preboot Execution Environment (PXE). More details on how to use a USB flash drive or how to PXE boot the ESXi installer are found in the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide, available from www.vmware.com/support/pubs/. Note that PXE booting the installer is not the same as PXE booting ESXi itself, something that we’ll discuss later in the section “Deploying VMware ESXi with vSphere Auto Deploy.”

      Performing an Unattended Installation of VMware ESXi

      ESXi supports the use of an installation script (often referred to as a kickstart, or KS, script) that automates the installation routine. By using an installation script, users can create unattended installation routines that make it easy to quickly deploy multiple instances of ESXi.

      ESXi comes with a default installation script on the installation media. Listing 2.1 shows the default installation script.

      Listing 2.1: The default installation script provided by ESXi

      If you want to use this default install script to install ESXi, you can specify it when booting the VMware ESXi installer by adding the ks=file://etc/vmware/weasel/ks.cfg boot option. We’ll show you how to specify that boot option shortly.

      Of course, the default installation script is useful only if the settings work for your environment. Otherwise, you’ll need to create a custom installation script. The installation script commands are much the same as those supported in previous versions of vSphere. Here’s a breakdown of some of the commands supported in the ESXi installation script:

      accepteula or vmaccepteula These commands accept the ESXi license agreement.

      Install The install command specifies that this is a fresh installation of ESXi, not an upgrade. You must also specify the following parameters:

      – firstdisk Specifies the disk on which ESXi should be installed. By default, the ESXi installer chooses local disks first, then remote disks, and then USB disks. You can change the order by appending a comma-separated list to the – firstdisk command, like this:

      – firstdisk=remote, local

      This would install to the first available remote disk and then to the first available local disk. Be careful here – you don’t want to inadvertently overwrite something (see the next set of commands).

      – overwritevmfs or – preservevmfs These commands specify how the installer will handle existing VMFS datastores. The commands are pretty self-explanatory.

      Keyboard This command specifies the keyboard type. It’s an optional component in the installation script.

      Network This command provides the network configuration for the ESXi host being installed. It is optional but generally recommended. Depending on your configuration, some additional parameters are required:

      – bootproto This parameter is set to dhcp for assigning a network address via DHCP or to static for manual assignment of an IP address.

      – ip This sets the IP address and is required with – bootproto=static. The IP address should be specified in standard dotted-decimal format.

      – gateway This command specifies the IP address of the default gateway in standard dotted-decimal format. It’s required if you specified – bootproto=static.

      – netmask The network mask, in standard dotted-decimal format, is specified with this command. If you specify – bootproto=static, you must include this value.

      – hostname Specifies the hostname for the installed system.

      – vlanid If you need the system to use a VLAN ID, specify it with this command. Without a VLAN ID specified, the system will respond only to untagged traffic.

      – addvmportgroup This parameter is set to either 0 or 1 and controls whether a default VM Network port group is created. 0 does not create the port group; 1 does create the port group.

      Reboot This command is optional and, if specified, will automatically reboot the system at the end of installation. If you add the – noeject parameter, the CD is not ejected.

      Rootpw This is a required parameter and sets the root password for the system. If you don’t want the root password displayed in the clear, generate an encrypted password and use the – iscrypted parameter.

      Upgrade This specifies an upgrade to ESXi 6. The upgrade command uses many of the same parameters as install and also supports a parameter for deleting the ESX Service Console VMDK for upgrades from ESX to ESXi. This parameter is the – deletecosvmdk parameter.

      This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the commands