PXE/Netboot deployment of ESXi 5.0.0
From Teknologisk videncenter
Current setup
On Mercantec we are trying to have a PXEboot deployment environment, to minimize the use of Optical Discs, both to save money and save the environment.
In our setup we already have a FOG server installed to deploy Windows images to your PC's with preinstalled SW. So the ESXi will be embedded in it.
Your DHCP server is setup to point next-server to the FOG servers IP and the bootfile is pxelinux.0. The TFTP root folder is located at /tftpboot
ESXi 5.0.0
Download the VMWare vSphere ESXi Hypervisor 5.0 ISO and extract all the file from the iso to /tftpboot/ESXi5.0/.
The folder should now look like:
[root@fog ESXi5.0]# ls
A.B00 BOOT.CFG K.B00 NET-FORC.V00 SATA-ATA.V00 SCSI-MEG.V00 UHCI-USB.V00
ATA-PATA.V00 EFI MBOOT.C32 NET-IGB.V00 SATA-SAT.V00 SCSI-MEG.V01 UPGRADE
ATA-PATA.V01 EFIBOOT.IMG MENU.C32 NET-IXGB.V00 SATA-SAT.V01 SCSI-MEG.V02 USEROPTS.GZ
ATA-PATA.V02 EHCI-EHC.V00 MISC-CNI.V00 NET-NX-N.V00 SATA-SAT.V02 SCSI-MPT.V00 VMWARE-ESX-BASE-OSL.TXT
ATA-PATA.V03 IMA-QLA4.V00 MISC-DRI.V00 NET-R816.V00 SATA-SAT.V03 SCSI-MPT.V01 VMWARE-ESX-BASE-README
ATA-PATA.V04 IMGDB.TGZ NET-BE2N.V00 NET-R816.V01 SCSI-ADP.V00 SCSI-MPT.V02 WEASELIN.I00
ATA-PATA.V05 IMGPAYLD.TGZ NET-BNX2.V00 NET-S2IO.V00 SCSI-AIC.V00 SCSI-QLA.V00
ATA-PATA.V06 IPMI-IPM.V00 NET-BNX2.V01 NET-SKY2.V00 SCSI-BNX.V00 SCSI-QLA.V01
ATA-PATA.V07 IPMI-IPM.V01 NET-CNIC.V00 NET-TG3.V00 SCSI-FNI.V00 SCSI-AAC.V00
B.B00 IPMI-IPM.V02 NET-E100.V00 OHCI-USB.V00 SCSI-HPS.V00 S.V00
BLOCK-CC.V00 ISOLINUX.BIN NET-E100.V01 SAFEBOOT.C32 SCSI-IPS.V00 TBOOT.B00
BOOT.CAT ISOLINUX.CFG NET-ENIC.V00 SATA-AHC.V00 SCSI-LPF.V00 TOOLS.T00
Because VMware requests the files in lowercase and the tftp daemon is case sensitive we need to rename them all to lowercase.
I used this script:
mv A.B00 a.b00
mv ATA-PATA.V00 ata-pata.v00
mv ATA-PATA.V01 ata-pata.v01
mv ATA-PATA.V02 ata-pata.v02
mv ATA-PATA.V03 ata-pata.v03
mv ATA-PATA.V04 ata-pata.v04
mv ATA-PATA.V05 ata-pata.v05
mv ATA-PATA.V06 ata-pata.v06
mv ATA-PATA.V07 ata-pata.v07
mv B.B00 b.b00
mv BLOCK-CC.V00 block-cc.v00
mv BOOT.CAT boot.cat
mv BOOT.CFG boot.cfg
mv EFI efi
mv EFIBOOT.IMG efiboot.img
mv EHCI-EHC.V00 ehci-ehc.v00
mv IMA-QLA4.V00 ima-qla4.v00
mv IMGDB.TGZ imgdb.tgz
mv IMGPAYLD.TGZ imgpayld.tgz
mv IPMI-IPM.V00 ipmi-ipm.v00
mv IPMI-IPM.V01 ipmi-ipm.v01
mv IPMI-IPM.V02 ipmi-ipm.v02
mv ISOLINUX.BIN isolinux.bin
mv ISOLINUX.CFG isolinux.cfg
mv K.B00 k.b00
mv MBOOT.C32 mboot.c32
mv MENU.C32 menu.c32
mv MISC-CNI.V00 misc-cni.v00
mv MISC-DRI.V00 misc-dri.v00
mv NET-BE2N.V00 net-be2n.v00
mv NET-BNX2.V00 net-bnx2.v00
mv NET-BNX2.V01 net-bnx2.v01
mv NET-CNIC.V00 net-cnic.v00
mv NET-E100.V00 net-e100.v00
mv NET-E100.V01 net-e100.v01
mv NET-ENIC.V00 net-enic.v00
mv NET-FORC.V00 net-forc.v00
mv NET-IGB.V00 net-igb.v00
mv NET-IXGB.V00 net-ixgb.v00
mv NET-NX-N.V00 net-nx-n.v00
mv NET-R816.V00 net-r816.v00
mv NET-R816.V01 net-r816.v01
mv NET-S2IO.V00 net-s2io.v00
mv NET-SKY2.V00 net-sky2.v00
mv NET-TG3.V00 net-tg3.v00
mv OHCI-USB.V00 ohci-usb.v00
mv SAFEBOOT.C32 safeboot.c32
mv SATA-AHC.V00 sata-ahc.v00
mv SATA-ATA.V00 sata-ata.v00
mv SATA-SAT.V00 sata-sat.v00
mv SATA-SAT.V01 sata-sat.v01
mv SATA-SAT.V02 sata-sat.v02
mv SATA-SAT.V03 sata-sat.v03
mv SCSI-ADP.V00 scsi-adp.v00
mv SCSI-AIC.V00 scsi-aic.v00
mv SCSI-BNX.V00 scsi-bnx.v00
mv SCSI-FNI.V00 scsi-fni.v00
mv SCSI-HPS.V00 scsi-hps.v00
mv SCSI-IPS.V00 scsi-ips.v00
mv SCSI-LPF.V00 scsi-lpf.v00
mv SCSI-MEG.V00 scsi-meg.v00
mv SCSI-MEG.V01 scsi-meg.v01
mv SCSI-MEG.V02 scsi-meg.v02
mv SCSI-MPT.V00 scsi-mpt.v00
mv SCSI-MPT.V01 scsi-mpt.v01
mv SCSI-MPT.V02 scsi-mpt.v02
mv SCSI-QLA.V00 scsi-qla.v00
mv SCSI-QLA.V01 scsi-qla.v01
mv SCSI-AAC.V00 scsi-aac.v00
mv S.V00 s.v00
mv TBOOT.B00 tboot.b00
mv TOOLS.T00 tools.t00
mv UHCI-USB.V00 uhci-usb.v00
mv UPGRADE upgrade
mv USEROPTS.GZ useropts.gz
mv VMWARE-ESX-BASE-OSL.TXT vmware-esx-base-osl.txt
mv VMWARE-ESX-BASE-README vmware-esx-base-readme
mv WEASELIN.I00 weaselin.i00
#Do the same for the upgrade folder
cd upgrade
mv ESXIMAGE.ZIP esximage.zip
mv EXTLINUX extlinux
mv ISOINFO isoinfo
mv MBR.BIN mbr.bin
mv MCOPY mcopy
mv METADATA.XML metadata.xml
mv METADATA.ZIP metadata.zip
mv PRECHECK.PY precheck.py
mv PREP.PY prep.py
mv PROFILE.XML profile.xml
pxelinux.cfg
Now we need to change /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default to include the ESXi Installer:
LABEL esx.install.5
kernel ESXi5.0/mboot.c32
append -c ESXi5.0/boot.cfg
MENU LABEL Install VMWare ESXi 5.0
TEXT HELP
This will install VMware ESXi 5.0
ENDTEXT
boot.cfg
Now we need to append /ESXi5.0/ to all the paths in /tftpboot/ESXi5.0/boot.cfg:
bootstate=0 title=Loading ESXi installer kernel=/ESXi5.0/tboot.b00 kernelopt=runweasel modules=/ESXi5.0/b.b00 --- /ESXi5.0/useropts.gz --- /ESXi5.0/k.b00 --- /ESXi5.0/a.b00 --- /ESXi5.0/ata-pata.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/ata-pata.v01 --- /ESXi5.0/ata-pata.v02 --- /ESXi5.0/ata-pata.v03 --- /ESXi5.0/ata-pata.v04 --- /ESXi5.0/ata-pata.v05 --- /ESXi5.0/ata-pata.v06 --- /ESXi5.0/ata-pata.v07 --- /ESXi5.0/block-cc.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/ehci-ehc.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/s.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/weaselin.i00 --- /ESXi5.0/ima-qla4.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/ipmi-ipm.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/ipmi-ipm.v01 --- /ESXi5.0/ipmi-ipm.v02 --- /ESXi5.0/misc-cni.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/misc-dri.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-be2n.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-bnx2.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-bnx2.v01 --- /ESXi5.0/net-cnic.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-e100.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-e100.v01 --- /ESXi5.0/net-enic.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-forc.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-igb.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-ixgb.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-nx-n.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-r816.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-r816.v01 --- /ESXi5.0/net-s2io.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-sky2.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/net-tg3.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/ohci-usb.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/sata-ahc.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/sata-ata.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/sata-sat.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/sata-sat.v01 --- /ESXi5.0/sata-sat.v02 --- /ESXi5.0/sata-sat.v03 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-aac.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-adp.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-aic.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-bnx.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-fni.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-hps.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-ips.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-lpf.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-meg.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-meg.v01 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-meg.v02 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-mpt.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-mpt.v01 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-mpt.v02 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-qla.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/scsi-qla.v01 --- /ESXi5.0/uhci-usb.v00 --- /ESXi5.0/tools.t00 --- /ESXi5.0/imgdb.tgz --- /ESXi5.0/imgpayld.tgz build= updated=0
And thats all you need to do. Try PXE boot a PC and select the new menu item in your boot menu.
KickStart File
If you want is to install unattended use a KS file. Refer to the file in boot.cfg just after modules=/ESXi5.0/b.b00 with ks=fog.tekkom.dk/ESXi5.0.ks
My ESXi5.0.ks file looks like:
# # Sample scripted installation file # # Accept the VMware End User License Agreement vmaccepteula # Set the root password for the DCUI and Tech Support Mode rootpw Toor1234 # Clears the entire disk clearpart --firstdisk --all --overwritevmfs # Install on the first local disk available on machine install --firstdisk --overwritevmfs # Set the network to DHCP on the first network adapater network --bootproto=dhcp --device=vmnic0 # Restarts after install. reboot # Added to test failures paranoid #Enable SSH service when the host boots for the first time %firstboot --interpreter=busybox esxcfg-nas --add --host 192.168.139.103 --share /data/raid/iso ISOStore >> /var/log/test.log
ESXi Links
https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Evaluation-Guide-4-Auto-Deploy.pdf
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-installation-setup-guide.pdf
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vsphere.install.doc_50/GUID-61A14EBB-5CF3-43EE-87EF-DB8EC6D83698.html