Installing VMware ESXi and vCenter 5.5 [Part 1]
Installing VMware vSphere 5.5 Series: In this series I will be installing ESXi and vCenter using Microsoft Server 2012 R2 virtual machines. Part 1: Introduction and ESXi Installation Part 2: Microsoft SQL 2012 Installation Part 3: Creating the vCenter Database & ODBC Setup Part 4: vCenter 5.5 Installation Part 5: Initial Setup (Accessing vCenter, Configure Basic Permissions, Add Host) Downloading ESXi: If you will be running ESXi from a physical server you will want to use the ESXi image provider by the hardware manufacture such as Dell, HP, Cisco. Their ESXi image has the drivers and software specific for the hardware. If you will be running ESXi in a nested environment, then the ESXi image from VMware is what you want. Here are the download links for each manufacturer: HP: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/software/vmware/esxi-image.html Dell: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverid=5YC4T Cisco: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/release/notes/OL_26617.html VMware: http://www.vmware.com/go/download-vspherehypervisor ESXi Installation: First boot your server from the ESXi ISO. Depending on your hardware you should mount the ISO using iLo/iDRAC/etc. Another nice way is to boot it from a USB thumb drive. You can make your USB bootable by using this tool: http://rufus.akeo.ie/ . Of course you can do it the old fashion way and burn the ISO to a disc. The first screen that pops up should look like this. It has a timer that will count down and automatically take you into the installer unless you hit a button …