Installing ESXi 4.0

Here are my notes on my last ESXi installation:

1. Download and burn CD from VMWare – the Dell customized version for a PowerEdge 2950

OPTIONAL BINARY
VMware ESXi 4.0 with Dell Customization
Version 4.0.0 | 181792 - 08/07/09
Binary (.iso) (417 MB)
Image for ESXi Installable that includes Dell customization.
md5sum: 0ff898e830a095abb2275181175e065e

2. Installing ESXi

Not much to say here. Basically set the password and configured the 1st network adapter.

3. Activated SSH (here’s where I’ve learned about this)

• At the console, hit ALT-F1
• type unsupported and hit <enter> (NOTE: you won’t see what your typing until you hit enter…)
• login
• edit /etc/inetd.conf
• uncomment the ssh line
• restart the services (services.sh restart)

We can now get the hell out of the datacenter :)

 

4. Install vSphere client

• HTTP the server, downloaded and installed vSphere client to my workstation
• On Windows 7 you have to fix it. Here the long and the short version

 

5. Install ftp server (here’s where I’ve learned about this)

• Downloaded OEM.tgz
• Uploaded to the datastore using the datastore browser
• On an SSH session, copied it to /bootbank/oem.tgz
• Added to /etc/inetd.conf:
• ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/proftpd proftpd
• Reboot

And there you go, you’ve got an ftp server on your ESXi! For client ESXi has native support as:

• wget: wget ftp://user:password@source_ESXi_IP/path/file
• ftpput & ftpget

 

6. Install some precious tooling

• Your favorite ftp client
• VMWare Converter

 

Please remember:

• by default, VMWare Converter chooses flat files
• after uploading to the server your VMWare Server or Player versions, you’ll have to convert it: vmkfstools -d thin -i source.vmdk destination.vmdk.

 

Thanks for the support Rasteiro :)