Make the Customized Esxi Iso Final

How to Create a Customized VMWare ESXi ISO Image

Lenovo Enterprise Product Group

Version 1.0

September 2014

2014 Lenovo. All rights reserved.

Creating the Customized VMWare ESXi ISO Image

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Contents

1.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 4

1.1 Solution Overview ...................................................................................................... 4

1.2 Audience..................................................................................................................... 4

2.0 Preparation .................................................................................................................... 4

2.1 Tools ........................................................................................................................... 4

2.2 ESXi OS offline bundles .............................................................................................. 4

2.3 Add-on cards driver ................................................................................................... 5

3.0 Procedures ..................................................................................................................... 5

3.1 Install the VMware Power CLI .................................................................................... 5

3.2 Load the Offline Bundles ............................................................................................ 5

3.3 Clone an Existing Image Profile .................................................................................. 6

3.4 Patch Driver into New profile ..................................................................................... 8

3.5 Make ISO .................................................................................................................... 9

4.0 References ................................................................................................................... 10


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1.0 Introduction

1.1 Solution Overview Learn how to create a customized VMWare ESXi ISO image with add-on card drivers not

currently available in the standard in-box offering.

This document will guide users to generate a customized image with VMware provided tools

and offline bundles.

1.2 Audience This document is intended for customers who install VMware ESXi on Lenovo ThinkServers.

2.0 Preparation

2.1 Tools VMware provides the tool named VMware vSphere PowerCLI on each release version. Please

login to my.vmware.com portal, go to download tab , find the binary and download it.

2.2 ESXi OS offline bundles On each VMware ESXi release, there is an ESXi OS offline bundle for of ESXi OS. , It will be used

for making the customized image. It can be downloaded from the my.vmware.com portal.


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2.3 Add-on cards driver The driver released by the add-on card vendor will also include the offline bundle package. The

correct driver bundle for your card will need to be downloaded

For example,

3.0 Procedures

3.1 Install the VMware Power CLI VMware Power CLI is a Windows-based tool. Install it on a Windows OS, and run it after successful installation.

3.2 Load the Offline Bundles Use the Add-ESXSoftwareDepot command to load both the ESXi offline bundle and driver offline bundle as depots.


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For example, Add-EsxSoftwareDepot C:\ibg-5.0.5.0-offline_bundle-1290233.zip

3.3 Clone an Existing Image Profile Use the Get-EsxImageProfile command to list available image profiles. For example, Get-EsxImageProfile


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Clone an existing available image profile by specifying a new name for the profile. For example, New-EsxImageProfile CloneProfile ESXi-5.5.0-1331820-standard name TestProfile Vendor Lenovo


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3.4 Patch Driver into New profile Use the Add-EsxSoftwarePackage command to add the async driver to the new image profile. For example, Add-EsxSoftwarePackage ImageProfile TestProfile SoftwarePackage net-igb

In above command, you will need to provide the software package name as a command option. Use the command Get-EsxSoftwarePackage to get the package name.


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3.5 Make ISO Export the new image profile. Run the Export-EsxImageProfile command to export the image profile as an ISO. For example, Export-EsxImageProfile ImageProfile TestProfile ExportToISO filepath c:\test.iso


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4.0 References

- https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI/

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Make the Customized Esxi Iso Final