There are a huge number of bloggers around the world producing great documentation and insight, as well as podcasters helping you pass your daily commute in a constructive and educational fashion! Eric’s awards give people the opportunity to recognise those who really stand out from the crowd, as well as more up and coming bloggers / podcasts.
vBlog 2017 sounds great! How do I vote?
I would encourage you to head over to Eric’s site and cast your votes; it only takes take a few seconds of your time to show some appreciation for the time and effort put in by those ladies and gentlemen who worked tirelessly throughout the year to help make all of our jobs that little bit easier.
Of course, if you do feel like throwing a vote for the Open TechCast podcast and / or Tekhead.it, then it would of course be much appreciated! 😀
There are a huge number of bloggers around the world producing great documentation and insight, and Eric’s awards give people the opportunity to recognise those who really stand out from the crowd, as well as more up and coming bloggers.
So with that in mind if you’re reading this now, I would encourage you to head over to Eric’s site below and cast your votes; it only takes take a few seconds of your time to show some appreciation for the time and effort put in by those ladies and gentlemen who worked tirelessly throughout the year to help make all of our jobs that little bit easier.
Let’s be honest – it’s got to be more worthwhile than voting for Trump! 🙂
I successfully ran my VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1 Nanolab for 18 months on my pair of Intel NUC DC3217IYE hosts. Early this year I got around to upgrading to 5.5. I had experienced some issues with my vCenter Server Appliance so ended up just rebuilding the lab from scratch and reattaching my old data stores. Having written all of this up, I then promptly forgot to post it! So for the sake of continuity (before I do the same for 6.0 shortly), this article covers the process.
In addition I also purchased a 3rd node for my lab, the 4th Gen D34010WYKH model (also with a Core i3), with which I was able to test and prove the process on as it uses the same NIC chipset.
The following are updated instructions for installing vSphere 5.5 on Intel NUC (any model with the Intel® 82579V or Intel® I218V onboard NIC should work).
I recommend before you start, you upgrade the NUC to the latest firmware, to avoid any potential bugs (of which there were a few when they were first released). Copy the latest firmare image onto a USB stick, boot the NUC, hit F7 at the bios, find your firmware on the USB stick and let it do it’s thing:
Intel NUC Firmware Upgrade
vSphere 5.5 Install Requirements
A USB Stick. This should work on anything over 1-2GB but personally am using 8GB PNY Micro Sleek Attache & 16GB Kinston DataTraveler Micro drives as they’re tiny, so less likely to catch on anything as they stick out the back of the NUC box, and they cost less than £5 each.
A copy of VMware Workstation 8 / Fusion 6 or newer.
If you do choose to add this in as well to your image, simply run the customiser twice, once for the network VIB, then a second time for the SATA vin, using the interim image as your source for the final image.
Process Overview
Create a customised ISO with the additional Intel driver.
Install ESXi to your USB stick using VMware Workstation / VMware Fusion and the customised ISO you will create below.
Plug in your NUC, insert the USB stick, boot and go!
Part One – Create the Custom ISO
Run the ESXi-Customizer-v2.7.2.exe (latest version at time of writing).
This will extract the customer to the directory of your choosing.
Navigate to the new directory.
Run the ESXi-Customizer.cmd batch file. This will open up the GUI, where you can configure the following options:
Path to your ESXi Installer
Path to the Intel driver downloaded previously
Path where you want the new ISO to be saved
Ensure you tick the Create (U)EFI-bootable ISO checkbox.
ESXi-Customizer with 2.3.2 vib
This will output a new custom ESXi installer ISO called ESXi-5.x-Custom.iso or similar, in the path defined above.
Part Two – Install bootable ESXi to the USB stick.
I stress that this is my preferred way of doing this as an alternative is simply to burn your customised ISO to a CD/DVD and boot using a USB DVD-ROM. That would however be a whole lot slower, and waste a blank CD!
Plug your chosen USB stick into your PC.
Open VMware Workstation (8 or above), VMware Fusion, or whatever you use, ideally supporting the Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI option (allowing you to nest 64-bit VMs).
Create a new VM, you can use any spec you like really, as ESXi always checks on boot, but I created one with the similar specs as my intended host, single socket, 2vCPU cores. RAM doesn’t really matter either but I use at least 4GB normally. This does not require a virtual hard disk.
Once the VM is created, and before you boot it, edit the CPU settings and tick the Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI checkbox. This will reduce errors when installing ESXi (which checks to ensure it can virtualise 64-bit operating systems).
VMware Workstation Nesting
VMware Fusion Nesting
Set the CD/DVD (IDE) configuration to Use ISO image file, and point this to the customised ISO created earlier.
Once the above settings have been configured, power on the VM.
As soon as the VM is powered on, in the bottom right of the screen, right click on the flash disk icon, and click Connect (Disconnect from Host).
Attach USB in VMware Workstation
Attach USB in VMware Fusion
This will mount the USB stick inside the VM, and allow you to do a standard ESXi installation onto the stick.
ESXi Install
At the end of the installation, disconnect the stick, un-mount and unplug it.
Install Complete
Part Three – Boot and go!
This is the easy bit, assuming you don’t have any of the HDMI issues I mentioned in the first post!
Plug your newly installed USB stick into the back of the NUC.
Don’t forget to plug in a network cable (duh!) and keyboard for the initial configuration. If you wish to modify any bios settings (optional), you will also ideally need a mouse as the NUC runs Visual BIOS.
Power on the NUC…
Have fun!
That’s it!
Any questions/comments, please feel free to hit me up on twitter as I have recently disabled comments on my blog due to the insane volumes of spam bots they were attracting!
Yes I fully admit that this article is click bait, but i can promise you that attending the event below will help you learn all about VMware’s latest and greatest release (and a few other things besides), as well as having the opportunity to network with some awesome like-minded individuals!
The event agenda is below and follows the usual mix of vendor sponsors and top notch community sessions, followed by a couple of cheeky lemonades at the vBeers event at the Pavilion End at the end of the day.
As an added bonus it seems that the night before the meeting, the crew from TECHUnplugged will be in town and everyone is invited to a vWhatever session (vBeers, vWine, vCurry, vWhatever!), location TBC. Keep an eye on Jane Rimmer’s blog for more info!
I am hoping to be at the event, having only missed one in about the last 3 years, so if you do spot me there (I’m the 6’7” Scottish bloke”)!