How to choose an Esxi version?
In the previous post, we discussed virtualization and introduced ESXi as a bare-metal Hypervisor to implement the virtualization abstraction layer. In this post, we will choose and install an ESXi Host version.
Before starting the installation process, we should choose a suitable and compatible ESXi version for our virtual environment. Selecting a compatible ESXi version is the first but crucial step because choosing an incompatible ESXi version causes serious problems such as not being able to power on a virtual machine.
What is VMware Compatibility Guide?
“VMware hardware version compatibility matrix” is a great and helpful tool produced by VMWare to help administrators choose the compatible product version. As shown in the image below, selecting the product release version, partner name, and system type like Rackmount servers is necessary to filter better. Still, completing other filters such as CPU Series helps the result better filtering. Click on “Update and View Results.” which will show the results.
By applying these filters, the results of choosing the compatible product version with the server hardware will be shown, as in the image below. Fortunately, VMware has produced Customized ESXi versions for most server brands; for example, for HPE servers, we must download HPE Custom ESXi.
What is the virtual machine hardware version?
The virtual machine hardware version or virtual machine compatibility setting is a list of virtual hardware available for virtual machines. This list corresponds with the actual physical hardware. Choosing an ESXi version that supports the existing virtual machine’s hardware version is essential. Administrators can not power on hardware version 14 virtual machines in hosts with prior ESXi version. Generally, virtual machines created by VMware products with higher hardware version support cannot migrate, be managed, and be powered on in VMware products with lower hardware version support.
For more information, visit this Link: Hardware Features Available with Virtual Machine Compatibility Settings
ESXi Installation
Mounting Esxi ISO File
After Downloading a compatible ESXi ISO file, you should mount the file to the server and boot the server from it. You can either use iLO or iDRAC Integrated Remote consoles or make a bootable USB drive and boot the server from it. Here we used iLO Remote console. For doing this, Go to the iLO management page and then Select Remote console from the left menu and again select Remote console. Then, you can choose a remote console between the three choices here; we chose the HTML5 console. You can mount the Iso, As shown in the image below.
when we boot the server from the iso file, ESXi Installer runs and starts to load the required files and starting services:
Installatin :
After loading files, the ESXi installation process begins. Press enter to continue the installation :
To continue the installation process, you must accept the EULA -End User License Agreement- by pressing F11:
Choosing Disks
in this step, the installer will show you all available disks after scanning, and you must choose the disk where you want to install ESXi. If you have a USB Drive, SD card, or even vSan disks, you will see all of them in this step. But which of them is better, faster, safer, and more efficient to install ESXi? we will discuss this in a new post
Keyboard layout
in this step we must choose a keyboard layout, this is so important because some administrators do not pay attention to this part and Because of the discrepancy in their keyboard and ESXi’s chosen keyboard layout, they can not log in to the ESXi host.
root password
we must generate a root password for ESXi. we can log in to the ESXi web interface and Operating system using this password.
Confirm the installation and press F11 to start the process:
after the installation finishes, we unmount the iso file and reboot the server.
After Rebooting, the ESXi will start to run and at the end, we will reach the console of the ESXi server :
In the next post, we will configure the ESXi server and have a tour of its environment.
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