This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org: --- Title : Create a VMWare ESXi 5 5.1 5.5 USB install disk Author : Remy van Elst Date : 27-02-2013 URL : https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/VMWare-ESXi-5-USB-installer.html Format : Markdown/HTML --- If you need to install VMWare ESXi 5.1 and your shiny new server does not have a CD/DVD drive but 8 SSD's, what do you do? You convert the ISO image to a USB install disk. This also works for the special HP version of ESXi with all the drivers.

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These steps come from the [VMware install guide][2], but the VMWare website and their search function are both shit. And the steps in the manual don't completely work, so here's the fix for it. ### Preparation You'll need: * A working linux installation * The latest version of [syslinux][3] * A +2GB USB thumb drive * The VMWare ESXi 5 ISO (register and download from vmware.com) Install required software: # This is for debian/ubuntu apt-get install dosfstools mtools syslinux Insert your USB drive in your linux server and find the device name (dmesg), in my case it was `/dev/sdc`. ### Preparing the USB drive 2We are going to completely format the USB drive, _ALL DATA WILL BE WIPED_. /sbin/fdisk /dev/sdc * Type `d` to delete partitions until they are all deleted. * Type `n` to create primary partition 1 that extends over the entire disk. * Type `t` to set the type to an appropriate setting for the FAT32 file system, such as `c`. * Type `a` to set the active flag on partition 1. * Type `p` to print the partition table. The result should be similar to the following text: Disk /dev/sdc: 2004 MB, 2004877312 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 * 1 243 1951866 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) * Type `w` to write the partition table and quit. * Format the USB flash drive with the Fat32 file system. /sbin/mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n USB /dev/sdc1 Now we are going to install the syslinux bootloader to the USB device. Please replace the path below with the location where your downloaded and extracted version of syslinux is. syslinux /dev/sdc1 cat /path/to/syslinux/download/mbr/mbr.bin > /dev/sdC ### Copy the ISO First create two mount folders, one for the USB drive, and one for the ISO: mkdir -p /mnt/{iso,usb} Now mount the VMWare ESXi 5.1 iso mount -o loop ./path/to/vmware-esxi-5.1.iso /mnt/iso And mount the USB stick: mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb Copy the ISO over to the USB stick: cp -r /mnt/iso/* /mnt/usb Go to the USB stick mount folder: cd /mnt/usb Copy the `ISOLINUX` for `SYSLINUX` cp isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg Edit `syslinux.cfg`: vim syslinux.cfg And change the line `DEFAULT menu.c32` to `DEFAULT mboot.c32`. The file should look like this (mind version numbers): DEFAULT mboot.c32 MENU TITLE ESXi-5.1.0-799733-standard Boot Menu NOHALT 1 PROMPT 0 TIMEOUT 80 LABEL install KERNEL mboot.c32 APPEND -c boot.cfg -p 1 MENU LABEL ESXi-5.1.0-799733-standard ^Installer LABEL hddboot LOCALBOOT 0x80 MENU LABEL ^Boot from local disk Now unmount the USB drive: umount /mnt/usb And you can boot from it and install ESXi. [1]: https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212 [2]: https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-51-installation-setup-guide.pdf [3]: http://www.syslinux.org --- License: All the text on this website is free as in freedom unless stated otherwise. This means you can use it in any way you want, you can copy it, change it the way you like and republish it, as long as you release the (modified) content under the same license to give others the same freedoms you've got and place my name and a link to this site with the article as source. This site uses Google Analytics for statistics and Google Adwords for advertisements. You are tracked and Google knows everything about you. Use an adblocker like ublock-origin if you don't want it. All the code on this website is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 license unless already licensed under a license which does not allows this form of licensing or if another license is stated on that page / in that software: This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see . Just to be clear, the information on this website is for meant for educational purposes and you use it at your own risk. I do not take responsibility if you screw something up. Use common sense, do not 'rm -rf /' as root for example. If you have any questions then do not hesitate to contact me. See https://raymii.org/s/static/About.html for details.