To match the acceptance level for a VIB or image profile you want to install to the host, you can lower the acceptance level. Hosts, image profiles, and individual VIBs have acceptance levels and the default acceptance level for an ESXi image or image profile is PartnerSupported. If we are not changing acceptance level from the default, you will receive an error during the creation of ESXi ISO and it’s installation. Next, we need to change the acceptance level to CommunitySupported. You can use “Add-EsxSoftwareDepot” cmdlet to import the VMware offline bundle you have downloaded.Īdd-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile “New Image Name” -SoftwarePackage “driver” -ForceĪdd-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile ESXICUSTOM -SoftwarePackage net-tulip -Force Start the PowerCLI session from the windows machine and import the software depots.

In our scenario, we are using ESXi 6.5 offline bundle and net-tulip legacy driver to build a custom ESXi 6.5 Installation image. Software Depot – The ESXi software depot contains the image profiles and software packages (VIBs) that are used to run ESXiĬreating a custom ESXi image using VMware PowerCLI. Image Profile – An Image Profile defines the set of VIBs that an ESXi installation or update process uses. This software packaging format is used by VMware and other 3rd party vendors to provide the required software for ESXi. At a conceptual level, a VIB is like a tarball or ZIP archive in that it is a collection of files packaged into a single archive to facilitate distribution. VIB – VIB stands for vSphere Installation Bundle. You can download from VMware/Product Siteīefore starting to build the custom ESXi image, you need to be familiar with the following terms: Driver or software you need to add to custom ISO.Windows-based PC with VMware PowerCLI Installed.Note: Many vendors are giving custom ESXi installation ISO to support their brand new hardware. In this article, we will look at the procedure to create a custom ESXi iso using VMware PowerCLI and vSphere Client. This can be performed through the GUI & command-line interface. You can avoid such complications by building a custom ESXi installation image. Installing these required items post-installation might be quite challenging as it involves too many processes. There are cases where you may require additional drivers/software. The base ESXi installation image does not contain all the necessary software packages/drivers required for all the hardware devices. You can download it from the account linked with the registered product. VMware ESXi is available to download in the official VMware site.

Create Custom ISO using Image Builder with vSphere Client.Step 6: Create a custom ISO using the image profile created.Step 4: Add the driver or required custom file.

Creating a custom ESXi image using VMware PowerCLI.

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