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How-to install ESXi 4.0 on USB memory Key

By Vladan SEGET | Last Updated: February 15, 2017

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Update: You should really check the latest post on How to create bootable VMware ESXi 5 U1 by using VMware Player for Free – It's the fastest and easiest method to create bootable USB memory stick with the latest Free VMware ESXi 5 U1 hypervisor.

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….

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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.

ESXi 4 vSphere on USB Memory Key

ESXi 4 vSphere on USB Memory Key

 

04.) Open the ISO file with IZArc and extract the whole content to c:Vmware-VMvisor-Installer-4.0.0-164009.x86_64 folder .

ESXi 4 vSphere on USB Memory Key

05.) Browse to “image.tgz.temptarusrlibvmwareinstallerVMware-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…

 

ESXi 4 vSphere on USB Memory Key


ESXi 4 vSphere on USB Memory Key

ESXi 4 vSphere on USB Memory Key


06.) From just open Winimage, and goto file menu:  Disk > “Restore Virtual Harddisk Image on physical drive”

ESXi 4.0 vSphere on USB Memory Stick

07.) Select your USB drive

ESXi 4 vSphere on USB Memory Key

08.) Select The file “VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd” that you extracted earlier.

ESXi 4 vSphere on USB Memory Key

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.. -:)

ESXi 4 vSphere on USB Memory Key

10.) And the result of your effort should look like this.

ESXi 4.0 vSphere on USB Memory Stick

 

Enjoy… -:)

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| Filed Under: Server Virtualization Tagged With: ESXi 4 Memory Stick, ESXi 4.0 USB, ESXi 4.0 vSphere USB, ESXi USB Stick

About Vladan SEGET

This website is maintained by Vladan SEGET. Vladan is as an Independent consultant, professional blogger, vExpert x16, Veeam Vanguard x9, VCAP-DCA/DCD, ESX Virtualization site has started as a simple bookmarking site, but quickly found a large following of readers and subscribers.

Connect on: Facebook. Feel free to network via Twitter @vladan.

Comments

  1. Mike Laverick says

    June 10, 2009 at 11:40 am

    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

    • Joe smith says

      March 29, 2010 at 8:36 am

      OK but what if you do not have the ESXi Cd ?????????????????????????????????

      • Vladan SEGET says

        March 29, 2010 at 10:15 am

        Go and get it as an ISO image at Vmware Website, and then ,you can easily burn it into a CD.. -:)

    • Souabni Yassine says

      July 1, 2010 at 5:32 pm

      I’ve tested both ways thanks for this great article.

    • Chris says

      September 10, 2010 at 2:25 am

      This is more for ppl who want to customize oem.tgz to include drivers for unrecognized hardware. In which case it won’t boot so far to get to the option to install to usb drive. PEACE

  2. Vladan SEGET says

    June 10, 2009 at 11:59 am

    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

  3. Jesper Rex says

    July 14, 2009 at 8:25 am

    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

  4. ML says

    July 24, 2009 at 3:45 am

    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.

    • Vladan SEGET says

      July 25, 2009 at 12:10 am

      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…

  5. ML says

    July 25, 2009 at 2:08 am

    … 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.

  6. solori says

    August 31, 2009 at 7:02 pm

    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.

    • Vladan says

      August 31, 2009 at 10:43 pm

      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…

  7. Russell Blandamer says

    October 27, 2009 at 1:19 pm

    Thanks for this. Works like a charm.

  8. matsr says

    December 4, 2009 at 7:12 am

    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.

    • Vladan says

      December 4, 2009 at 10:40 pm

      Well, all the content will be wiped out anyway during the installation. -:).
      Thanks.

      • matsr says

        December 5, 2009 at 2:56 pm

        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.

        • tahfo01 says

          December 18, 2009 at 2:39 pm

          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

        • Fujisawa Rob says

          August 4, 2010 at 2:39 pm

          I used Diskpart.

  9. Vladan SEGET says

    December 18, 2009 at 11:16 pm

    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

    • tahfo01 says

      December 19, 2009 at 1:03 pm

      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!!!??

      • Vladan SEGET says

        December 20, 2009 at 8:19 am

        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

  10. Pura Gaetke says

    May 2, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    Hey! Just wanted to respond. I really liked your opinion. Keep up the great work.

    • RG says

      June 7, 2010 at 2:15 pm

      Great site and info! I have a DL380 G6 as well. We tried to install on a SD Card embedded using both the wmware download and HP’s download for ESXi but got “fatal error message… unable to write image to selected disk” when trying to select the 4GB PNY SD card to install to. Was able to install on USB drive connected externally just fine though. Can any sd card be used fro this type of install or only the HP supported cards that you buy from HP?

      • Marien Lebreton says

        August 5, 2010 at 2:47 am

        Anyone should fit as ESXi will use standard drivers – but
        would recommend Kingston ones though (they are the ones which Dell OEM’s to sell with Poweredge SD-fitted servers (R710 etc.)) don’t know about HP).

      • Marien Lebreton says

        August 5, 2010 at 2:52 am

        Hi all

        Just a general information (I’m not a Dell rep!) but new Dell PE R810 does now have a redundant SD slot (kind of mirroring) which will allow failover in case of SD card burnout.

        In any case be aware that losing completely the hypervisor e.g. failed USB or SD card (tested that for you) will disconnect the host from VCenter BUT all VMs will still run unaffected, which allows you to postpone the host powerdown to later time.
        Note it’s though quite annoying even if running a cluster as you won’t be able to VMotion VMs from this host elsewhere as it’s not connected in VCenter anymore – so will probably result in downtime! Then R810 SD mirroring is a good one, think all vendors will get this soon or late.

  11. Ewan Leith says

    July 22, 2010 at 5:39 am

    Just to say in ESX 4.1, the disk image is now located in the imagedd.bz2 file, you can exact is using the same tools, it’s just a new file to extract inside the VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.1.0-260247.x86_64 ISO image.

    • Vladan SEGET says

      July 24, 2010 at 8:00 am

      Thanks Ewan for the info… -:)

  12. Tony says

    July 26, 2010 at 12:39 am

    Wow!!! easy and fast. I haven’t tried installing to a targeted usb device but using your directions I was up and running on 4.0.2 in a few minutes. Nice post!

  13. Ravel Vinayak says

    July 29, 2010 at 2:35 pm

    my scandisk cruzer USB 2.0 is not being recognised by WinImage. Any solutions?

    • Vladan SEGET says

      July 30, 2010 at 6:18 am

      By WinImage? Do you actually see it appearing in the Windows Explorer? If yes then Winimage should not be in trouble…

      • Ravel Vinayak says

        July 30, 2010 at 12:39 pm

        Do not worry about it. I just re-installed Win Image again and it showed up.

        Thanks for the quick reply! and thanks for the detailed procedure… the server our company ordered comes without a CD ROM drive, so your post came to the rescue.

      • Ravel Vinayak says

        July 30, 2010 at 5:31 pm

        hi again,

        i am trying to format the USB which has the ESX on it. But it does not format. Any solution to format the USB drive to brand new?

        • Marien Lebreton says

          August 5, 2010 at 2:46 am

          Hi,
          Give a look to HP Low Level Format Tool. It’s a nice one.

  14. Martin Cleaver says

    August 24, 2010 at 9:09 am

    Here’s how to do this on a Mac http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/01/08/creating-a-bootable-esxi-usb-stick-on-mac-os-x/

  15. matt says

    September 16, 2010 at 3:23 pm

    Do this directions apply to ESXi4.1 free. I am trying to do it but there is no image.tgz file after I extract the iso

    • marce says

      October 7, 2010 at 6:32 pm

      extract the iso file ‘VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.1.0-260247.x86_64.iso’, extract the inner file ‘imagedd.bz2’, and open the file ‘imagedd’ with WinImage

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