{"id":1146,"date":"2015-11-04T19:59:03","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T19:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/blog\/?p=1146"},"modified":"2015-11-23T20:32:09","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T20:32:09","slug":"nanolab-part-9-installing-vmware-vsphere-esxi-5-5-on-intel-nuc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/blog\/2015\/11\/nanolab-part-9-installing-vmware-vsphere-esxi-5-5-on-intel-nuc\/","title":{"rendered":"NanoLab &#8211; Part 9 \u2013 Installing VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5 on Intel NUC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I successfully ran\u00a0my <a title=\"VMware vSphere ESXi Nanolab on Intel NUC\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/nanolab-running-vmware-vsphere-on-intel-nuc-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\">VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1 Nanolab<\/a> for 18 months on my pair of Intel NUC\u00a0<span style=\"color: #444444;\">DC3217IYE hosts. Early this year I got around to upgrading to\u00a05.5. 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<\/span>. 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.<\/p>\n<p>In addition I also purchased a 3rd node for my lab, the 4th\u00a0Gen 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.<\/p>\n<p>The following are updated instructions for installing vSphere 5.5 on Intel NUC (any model with the\u00a0Intel\u00ae 82579V or Intel\u00ae I218V onboard NIC should work).<\/p>\n<p>I recommend before you start, you upgrade the NUC\u00a0to 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&#8217;s thing:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1150\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1150\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/IMG_0995-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Intel NUC Firmware Upgrade\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/IMG_0995-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/IMG_0995-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/IMG_0995-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1150\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Intel NUC Firmware Upgrade<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>vSphere 5.5 Install Requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A USB Stick. This should work on anything over 1-2GB but personally am using 8GB PNY Micro Sleek Attache &amp; 16GB Kinston DataTraveler Micro drives as they&#8217;re tiny, so less likely to catch on anything as they stick out the back of the NUC box, and they cost less than \u00a35 each.<\/li>\n<li>A copy of VMware Workstation 8 \/ Fusion 6 or newer.<\/li>\n<li>ESXi-Customizer 2.7.2 (created by Andreas Peetz)<br \/>\n<a title=\"ESXi Customizer\" href=\"http:\/\/v-front.blogspot.com\/p\/esxi-customizer.html\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/v-front.blogspot.com\/p\/esxi-customizer.html<\/a>\u00a0for adding VIBs to your image. NOTE: This can also be done by Powershell, but I like the GUI as it&#8217;s easy! (<a title=\"Using the vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.vmware.com\/vsphere\/2012\/04\/using-the-vsphere-esxi-image-builder-cli.html\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/blogs.vmware.com\/vsphere\/2012\/04\/using-the-vsphere-esxi-image-builder-cli.html<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>The ESXi driver for the\u00a0Intel\u00ae 82579V Gigabit Ethernet Controller\u00a0(e.g. for the original\u00a0models using ESXi 5.5):\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"net-e1001e-1.0.0.x86_64\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/net-e1001e-1.0.0.x86_64.zip\" target=\"_blank\">net-e1000e-2.3.2.x86_64.zip<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>OR The ESXi driver for the\u00a0Intel\u00ae I218V Gigabit Ethernet Controller (e.g. for the Haswell based D34010U models):\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"net-e1000e-2.3.2.x86_64\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/net-e1000e-2.3.2.x86_64.zip\" target=\"_blank\">net-e1001e-1.0.0.x86_64.zip<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>(AND) The ESXi AHCI driver for the SATA controller (if you want to use local drives in the\u00a0\u00a0Haswell based D34010U models):\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"sata-xahci-1.10-1.x86_64\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/sata-xahci-1.10-1.x86_64.zip\" target=\"_blank\">sata-xahci-1.10-1.x86_64<\/a><\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Process Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Create a customised ISO with the additional Intel driver.<\/li>\n<li>Install ESXi to your USB stick using VMware Workstation \/ VMware Fusion and the customised ISO you will create below.<\/li>\n<li>Plug in your NUC, insert the USB stick, boot and go!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Part One &#8211; Create the Custom ISO<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Run the\u00a0<strong>ESXi-Customizer-v2.7.2.exe<\/strong>\u00a0(latest version at time of writing).<\/li>\n<li>This will extract the customer to the directory of your choosing.<\/li>\n<li>Navigate to the new directory.<\/li>\n<li>Run the\u00a0<strong>ESXi-Customizer.cmd<\/strong>\u00a0batch file. This will open up the GUI, where you can configure the following options:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>Path to your ESXi Installer<\/li>\n<li>Path to the Intel driver downloaded previously<\/li>\n<li>Path where you want the new ISO to be saved<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li>Ensure you tick the\u00a0<strong>Create (U)EFI-bootable ISO checkbox<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div id=\"attachment_1205\" style=\"width: 497px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-30-at-00.13.22.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1205\" class=\"wp-image-1205 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-30-at-00.13.22.png\" alt=\"ESXi-Customizer with 2.3.2 vib\" width=\"487\" height=\"294\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-30-at-00.13.22.png 487w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-30-at-00.13.22-150x90.png 150w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-30-at-00.13.22-300x181.png 300w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-30-at-00.13.22-50x30.png 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 487px) 100vw, 487px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1205\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">ESXi-Customizer with 2.3.2 vib<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This will output a new custom ESXi installer ISO called\u00a0<strong>ESXi-5.x-Custom.iso<\/strong>\u00a0or similar, in the path defined above.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Part Two &#8211; Install bootable ESXi to the USB stick.<\/strong><br \/>\nI 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!<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Plug your chosen USB stick into your PC.<\/li>\n<li>Open VMware Workstation (8 or above), VMware Fusion, or whatever you use, ideally supporting the\u00a0<strong>Virtualize Intel VT-x\/EPT or AMD-V\/RVI<\/strong>\u00a0option (allowing you to nest 64-bit VMs).<\/li>\n<li>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\u00a0specs as my intended host, single socket, 2vCPU cores. RAM doesn&#8217;t really matter either but I use at least 4GB normally. This does <em>not<\/em> require a virtual hard disk.<\/li>\n<li>Once the VM is created, and before you boot it, edit the CPU settings and tick the\u00a0<strong>Virtualize Intel VT-x\/EPT or AMD-V\/RVI<\/strong>\u00a0checkbox. This will reduce errors when installing ESXi (which checks to ensure it can virtualise 64-bit operating systems).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div style=\"width: 493px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2013\/01\/012713_2038_NanoLabRunn2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2013\/01\/012713_2038_NanoLabRunn2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"483\" height=\"229\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">VMware Workstation Nesting<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_1147\" style=\"width: 289px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-22.09.01.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1147\" class=\"wp-image-1147\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-22.09.01-300x252.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2014-08-29 at 22.09.01\" width=\"279\" height=\"234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-22.09.01-300x252.png 300w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-22.09.01-150x126.png 150w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-22.09.01.png 579w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 279px) 100vw, 279px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1147\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">VMware Fusion Nesting<\/p><\/div>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li>Set the\u00a0<strong>CD\/DVD (IDE)<\/strong>\u00a0configuration to\u00a0<strong>Use ISO image file<\/strong>, and point this to the customised ISO created earlier.<\/li>\n<li>Once the above settings have been configured, power on the VM.<\/li>\n<li>As soon as the VM is powered on, in the bottom right of the screen, right click on the flash disk icon, and click\u00a0<strong>Connect (Disconnect from Host)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div style=\"width: 297px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2013\/01\/012713_2038_NanoLabRunn3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2013\/01\/012713_2038_NanoLabRunn3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"287\" height=\"119\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attach USB in VMware Workstation<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_1148\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-21.38.18.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1148\" class=\"wp-image-1148 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-21.38.18-300x109.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2014-08-29 at 21.38.18\" width=\"300\" height=\"109\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-21.38.18-300x109.png 300w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-21.38.18-150x54.png 150w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-21.38.18.png 732w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1148\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attach USB in VMware Fusion<\/p><\/div>\n<ol start=\"8\">\n<li>This will mount the USB stick inside the VM, and allow you to do a standard ESXi installation onto the stick.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div id=\"attachment_1203\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1203\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1203\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-29-at-19.50.29-300x185.png\" alt=\"ESXi Install\" width=\"300\" height=\"185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-29-at-19.50.29-300x185.png 300w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-29-at-19.50.29-150x92.png 150w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-29-at-19.50.29-50x30.png 50w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-29-at-19.50.29.png 714w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1203\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">ESXi Install<\/p><\/div>\n<ol start=\"8\">\n<li>At the end of the installation, disconnect the stick, un-mount and unplug it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div id=\"attachment_1149\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1149\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1149\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-21.51.06-300x177.png\" alt=\"Install Complete\" width=\"300\" height=\"177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-21.51.06-300x177.png 300w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-21.51.06-150x88.png 150w, https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/08\/Screen-Shot-2014-08-29-at-21.51.06.png 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1149\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Install Complete<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Part Three &#8211; Boot and go!<\/strong><br \/>\nThis is the easy bit, assuming you don&#8217;t have any of the HDMI issues I mentioned in the first\u00a0<a title=\"NanoLab \u2013 Running VMware vSphere on Intel NUC \u2013 Part 1\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tekhead.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/nanolab-running-vmware-vsphere-on-intel-nuc-part-1\/\">post<\/a>!<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Plug your newly installed USB stick into the back of the NUC.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;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.<\/li>\n<li>Power on the NUC\u2026<\/li>\n<li>Have fun!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>That&#8217;s it!<\/p>\n<p>Any questions\/comments, please feel free to hit me up on <a title=\"Alex Galbraith on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/alexgalbraith\" target=\"_blank\">twitter<\/a> as I have recently disabled comments on my blog due to the insane volumes of spam bots they were attracting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I successfully ran\u00a0my VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1 Nanolab for 18 months on my pair of Intel NUC\u00a0DC3217IYE hosts. Early this year I got around to upgrading to\u00a05.5. I [..]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New Blog Post: #NanoLab - Part 9 \u2013 Installing #VMware #vSphere #ESXi 5.5 on @IntelNUC #vExpert","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[183,182,41],"tags":[324,382,186,57,86,181,184,546,545,185,56,122,543,540,88],"class_list":["post-1146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intel-nuc","category-nanolab","category-vmware","tag-5-5","tag-d34010wykh","tag-dc3217iye","tag-education","tag-esxi","tag-homelab","tag-intel","tag-intel-nuc","tag-nanolab","tag-nuc","tag-training","tag-vcap5","tag-virtualisation","tag-vmware","tag-vsphere"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/wp-uploads\/www.tekhead.org\/2014\/10\/intel-nuc-i3-d34010wyk-e1414614701731.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l3lU-iu","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekhead.it\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}