For servers without CD bulldoze or remote KVM yous might want to use an USB Flash Bulldoze to install ESXi to the hardware. This post explains how to create a bootable ESXi Installer USB Wink Drive in less than 2 minutes. The Flash Drive will work totally identical to an Installable CD.

esxi-installer-rufus

  1. Download Rufus
  2. Download or create an ESXi image:
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 7.0b [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 7.0 [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.7U3b [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.5U3a [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.7U3 [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.7U2 [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.7U1 [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) six.7 [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.5 U3 [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.5 U2 [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.five U1 [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.5d [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) half-dozen.5a [Release Notes][Download]
    • VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.5 [Download]
  3. Connect the USB flash drive to your figurer
  4. Open Rufus
    rufus-icon
  5. Select your Device
  6. Select your ISO file
    rufus-select-iso
  7. Select MBR partitioning scheme for BIOS or UEFI computers
  8. Press Start
    create-usb-esxi-installer-with-rufus
  9. Select Yes when it asks to supervene upon menu.c32.
    replace-menu-c32-warning
  10. Rufus will now create your bootable ESXi Installer USB Flash Drive. This volition take about 1 minute.
    rufus-copying-iso-files

Additional Hint
When you boot a server with this USB Wink Drive the ESXi Installer will copy the whole installer to the retention which means that you can install ESXi to the device where you are installing from. Just select it during the installation. This also works for diskless ESXi hosts where y'all want to install ESXi to an SD Bill of fare.install-esxi-to-usb-flash-drive