Free VMWare Infrastructure

Install VMWare ESX3i on a USB Key

1. Open VMware-VMvisor-InstallerCD-3.5.0_Update_2-103909.i386.iso with 7-Zip.
2. Extract install.tgz.
3. Open install.tgz in 7-zip.
4. Extract /usr/lib/vmware/installer/VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0-67921.i386.dd.bz2
5. Extract VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update_2-103909.i386.dd from VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0-67921.i386.dd.bz2 uxing 7-zip.
6. Download dd.exe version 0.5 from <a href="http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/dd-0.5.zip.

http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/dd-0.5.zip.</li>

7. Execute ‘dd –list’.
8. Find USB Key in list, mine looks like ‘?DeviceHarddisk3Partition0’.
9. Execute ‘dd if=VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update_2-103909.i386.dd of=?DeviceHarddisk3Partition0 bs=1M –size –progress’.
10. Unplug the USB flash drive (Warning: If you forget to unplug the flash drive from the PC you might lose the data on your hard drives the next time you boot!)
11. UAttach the USB flash drive to the machine you want to boot (Warning: If ESX Server 3i recognizes local drives, you might lose the data on it, so make sure you don´t need it anymore or unplug all hard drives!)
12. Turn the machine on and make sure the USB flash drive is selected as boot device
13. Watch ESX Server 3i boot
14. Configure
15. Enjoy!

Hints

VI Toolkit – For scripting with powershell or others.
Enable remote ssh to ESX3i
esExpress – VMWare backup (maybe compatible in September
VM-Help