Comments on: Creating USB based boot media for ESX 4 installs

By: Slym

Slym — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:35:08 +0000

Or you can use LinuxLive USB Creator and it will even create a ks.cfg with a lot of examples for different settings.

It’s there : http://www.linuxliveusb.com

And it’s working with vSphere 4.1 and 5.0.

By: arszone

arszone — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:57:41 +0000

You can create a boot disk using http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ use the software thats it. It will do the rest

By: Rob Smith

Rob Smith — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:05:47 +0000

Thanks to everyone for the above help. Just to add in my experience I used the following in my syslinux.cfg file and I was able to install Vmware ESX 4.0 from a USB key.

default esx
prompt 1
#menu title ESX build 164009
timeout 300

LABEL esx
menu default
menu label Install ESX in graphical mode
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img vmkopts=debugLogToSerial:1 mem=512M quiet askmedia

LABEL esx-text
menu label Install ESX in text mode
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img vmkopts=debugLogToSerial:1 mem=512M ks=usb text quiet askmedia

LABEL usb-ks
menu label ESX Scripted Install using USB ks.cfg
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img vmkopts=debugLogToSerial:1 mem=512M ks=usb quiet askmedia

LABEL first-disk-safe
menu label ESX Scripted Install to first disk
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img vmkopts=debugLogToSerial:1 mem=512M ks=file:///usr/lib/vmware/weasel/examples/ks-first-safe.cfg quiet

LABEL first-disk
menu label ESX Scripted Install to first disk (overwrite VMFS)
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img vmkopts=debugLogToSerial:1 mem=512M ks=file:///usr/lib/vmware/weasel/examples/ks-first.cfg quiet

LABEL skip-install
menu label ^Boot from first hard disk
localboot 0×80

Im no expert – just a guy who had to get Vmware installed and found server had no DVD drive – but it worked

Rob

By: Mike La Spina

Mike La Spina — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 13:55:29 +0000

Hi,
The folder structure needs to match what the iso looks like. The problem most people encounter is the ks location issue. Since syslinux loads a ram image, the visibility of the ks files is constrainted to the access context of the ram image at the time of load. The ram image can access the USB but it is instructed to do so by setting the install media from the ks file as “install usb”. Thus if the ks file is not part of the initrd img file you must define it over one of the available “ks=” methods of the image loads append statement of the syslinux.cfg file.

Mike

By: Perry

Perry — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:47:12 +0000

Do you need to copy the ESX 4.x “Vmware” folder contents to the root of the USB key, or just copy the folder to the root? Can somebody post an example of the syslinux.cfg assuming that all of the ESX install files are copied to the USB key?

By: Akiraa

Akiraa — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:12:43 +0000

For EXSi 4:
I deleted the isolinux.bin, renamed isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg, edited syslinux.cfg and added the keyword ‘usb’ at the end of the ‘append’ command

By: Mike La Spina

Mike La Spina — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:13:11 +0000

Hi Nathan,

Where is your ESX code repository. On the usb or on the http server?

If it is on the USB’s root then make sure your ks.cfg files contains a line with

install usb

Also be sure to copy the ESX DVD to the root of the USB stick.

Regards,

Mike

By: Nathan

Nathan — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:02:29 +0000

I got the USB key to boot, but it kept asking for me to install the cdrom and would fail after thin initrd.img booted. I could hit f2 and get a prompt and mount the usb drive. I tried ‘askmedia’ but then all it does is say..insert CDROM and keep asking for the CD.

I still use a ks.cfg file from a web server so my syslinux.cfg looks like this:
default esx
prompt 1
#menu title ESX build 208167
timeout 300

LABEL esx
menu label ESX Scripted Install using ks.cfg
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img vmkopts=debugLogToSerial:1 mem=512M ks=http://server/ks.cfg askmedia

By: Mike La Spina

Mike La Spina — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:21:27 +0000

Marin,

The file you have specified is an ESXi image and will not have the same layout, it’s isolinux boot entries are in the root directory.
You can create a boot but cannot use the automated the host configuration with the ESX install script methods.

By: Marin

Marin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:28:20 +0000

I can’t find isolinux directory from the VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.0.0.Update01-208167.x86_64.iso file (latest distribution from VMware), and of course there is no initrd file?