How-to install ESXi 4.0 on USB memory Key
Written in the past (some time ago…) , I published a how-to called “Howto install ESXi 3.5 update 3 on USB memory key“. The things has changed today a bit. The how-to is about the same but ESXi 4.0 and vSphere is new and it rocks…. We are in the ESX 4 Era… With ESX Server (vSphere) and more than 150 new features packed inside….
VMware with vSphere are distancing even more the competition with the performances of vSphere greatly improved. Microsoft’s Hyper-V R2 is still in Beta….. Clearly, the time for an investment into a Virtual Infrastructure with VMware was never been more advantageous. Prices for the SMB market are starting from $166 per CPU. Each physical server may contain up to two phycial processors with up to 6 cores per processor.
Ok, here is the how-to:
01.) Get this 2 tools to acomplish the task. IZArc, and also WinImage. (trial)
02.) Head to VMware Website and download the ESXi 4.0 vSphere – register for the free for the download. Here is the link.
03.) Save the file to the C drive for example.
04.) Open the ISO file with IZArc and extract the whole content to c:\Vmware-VMvisor-Installer-4.0.0-164009.x86_64 folder .
05.) Browse to “\image.tgz.temptar\usr\lib\vmware\installer\VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd.bz2\”
Extract the “VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd” file. You’ll have to extract the “image.tgz.temptar” file first…
06.) From just open Winimage, and goto file menu: Disk > “Restore Virtual Harddisk Image on physical drive”
07.) Select your USB drive
08.) Select The file “VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd” that you extracted earlier.
09.) Click Yes to write the image to the USB Memory Stick. (ooups… I’m running on French Windows here…… -:) ? It’s because I have 3 different language versions on my Desktop at home… Where I use VMware Workstation as a Virtual Lab. I hope that you don’t mind, the tuto is quite easy to follow…) . If you got any trouble, just comment below and I’ll try to help.. -:)
10.) And the result of your effort should look like this.
Related Posts :
Not long time ago I published an article about how to install ESXi 4 onto USB memory stick. It's ...
I've heard this info here and there on twitter and today Eric Sloof again came with the info. Th ...
You all know that it is possible to install ESX 3 or ESX 3.5 in a Laptop running VMware Workstat ...
If you do not want to install VMware ESXi 3.5 update 3 on your local drive, you can just follow ...
A tip pointed by Ivo Beerens. By using my RSS Reader to stay updated on blogs in the Virtualizat ...
Other posts from Server Virtualization
- Adding second service console via CLI
- Disable web access on VMware vCenter
- VMware ESX - Configuration of Service console via CLI
- Basic VMware ESX CLI networking commands
- How to change the default location of updates in vCenter
- Did you know that ESX 3.5 general support will end in less than 90 days?
- Starwind iSCSI HA Connection to ESX Server
- See a list of Storage Array Type Plugins on ESX Server
- New whitepaper released on PVSCSI
- Enable Jumbo Frames in ESXi 4
- How-to troubleshoot iSCSI connection to your SAN
- Starwind with ISCSI SAN Software can do High Availability for you...
- Overview Video from the new vSphere Pro video training from Train Signal
- New upgrade webpage for ESXi 4 pushes us to the right direction?
- You know how to collect diag information when your ESXi does PSOD?
- Use PVSCSI or not for lower intensive workloads
- Hardening guides for vSphere 4
- NTLDR missing - silly but can happend
- How To Shrink VMware Virtual Disk Files and disable shrinking
- vSphere Quick Start guide bonus download..
- ESXi - the past, the present and the future
- Farm commander - management tool for VI and TS or Citrix Farms
- How to collect log information from vCenter Server 4
- How to know where is my VM if vCenter is down?
- New patches for ESX 4 and ESXi 4
- Use VMware Converter to import 3rd party VMs, for example Virtual Iron's VMs
- Windows XP installation as a VM - trouble to see the disk or not?
- Vmware HCL for ESXi 4
- Time keeping for Windows VM's best practices
- Virtu-Al releasing 3rd update of PowerPack
There’s an even easier way. Plug in USB stick. Boot from the ESXi installable CD. Select the USB stick as the target. And just install. No need for extracting images or using DD as I used to in the past
Thanks Mike,
a pleasure to hear that easier way exist. My readers will apreciate this info… and I’ll explore this as soon as I can… -:)
Cheers
Vladan
I can confirm the easier way, works like a charm, on an HP G6 server, even without using HP Certified USB Keys.
Only thing is, doing the install, using HP ILO Virtual Devices is SLOW, as the ILO NIC only runs at 100 Mbit/S, even on the new G6 servers
Hi there,
I can confirm the direct installation on the USB stick, booting on ESXi 4 CD burnt from ISO file is an easier bit!
Also, worth to know that many modern servers have an internal USB port, which allows you to secure the OS better than if it fits in the middle of the cables behind the box… I now run several HP Proliant DL360G5 & DL380G5 with this solution and could relocate all SAS drives (raid 1 previously used to run ESX) to one single DL380 to have local storage for low importance VMs that don’t need SAN availability & performance and I’m much happy with this.
Thanks for the comment. Looks like that ESXi can save some disk space. If there is a possibility to plug-in the USB stick inside the servers, then it’s possible to use the local disks of anything else…. -:) It’s a good idea…
… or simply run diskless servers, that saves energy, money & raises availability rate
ESXi is anyway called to become the only VMware hypervisor, as they plan to get rid of the legacy service console in the future.
Why not use the built-in installer in ESXi 4.0 and go direct to USB flash from CD-ROM? This has changed considerably since ESX 3.5. In fact, the CD-ROM installer will find your USB flash drive and install directly to it without resorting to imaging or dd.
http://solori.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/preview-...
The process – from CD-boot to initial start-up – is about 14 minutes long, depending on CD-ROM speed and flash speed.
While writing this article, I was not aware of this. But Mike Laverick has pointed that already in the comments section. BUT since I externalized my comments to DISQUS now… -:).. all my comments BEFORE seems to dissapear…
Thanks for this. Works like a charm.
Something I just came across that you may want to add to your tutorial(at least I couldn't see that you mentioned it).
The USB thumb drive has to be clean, like no content and no partitions.
Well, all the content will be wiped out anyway during the installation. -:).
Thanks.
Obviously, but on my computer (winxp) your method failed when the USB thumb drive was not completely clean. I deleted all partitions so that disk management said unallocated space on the entire drive and it worked perfectly fine.
I am having the same problem you mentioned. I am trying to clean the thumb drive but I can’t remove the partition. How did you do that? I tried it under disk management in both XP and Vista but it said this operation is not supported on removable drives. Thanks for your help
You can also try to use Gparted Live CD to erase all the partitions…http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php
Or as pointed Mike Laverick, install the ESXi 4 directly to USB key. No need to folow “the long” way… -:)
Vladan
I tried to install ESXi 4.0 on the flash drive directly from the CD and I got the message that it was successfully installed but when I reboot using the flash drive, I get the following message: Cannot get bank1 parameters. Warning: Bank1 partition type is invalid. Ignoring. same message for bank2 and then: Panic no usable banks found. Any ideas why am I getting these messages even though it said the install was successful!!!??
Hi, Then there is also a tool to format the USB pen drive from HP. Once I used it to format my USB thumb, since under XP or Win 7 I could not do it. The file is available from here: http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197
Hope this helps.
Vladan