NUC Toss Notes – Install ESXi7

Recently, I made a Demo application. I rely on pure virtual machines and containers for verification. ESXi 7 was installed on NUC8 two months ago, which greatly helped to improve efficiency.

However, VMware officially does not provide ESXi software packages that can be directly used for NUC8, and there is a lack of network adapter drivers for NUC8 and other devices. Moreover, a large number of online articles still introduce the use of the old “esXI-Customizer-ps” script to complete the image installation, and the preparation steps are extremely complicated and complicated.

Therefore, this article will share how to make ESXi image with Intel nic driver, support various “unofficial authentication devices”, and how to install ESXi 7 on NUC.

Writing in the front

ESXi is a commercial software, but you can use it for a long time by applying for a free license. The following are the license application addresses for the two major versions:

  • VMware vSphere Hypervisor 7.0
  • VMware vSphere Hypervisor 6.7

It is recommended that you apply for authorization first, wait patiently for the authorization to be approved, and then continue with this article.

Obtaining related software packages

After the authorization application is complete, you can download the ESXi software package from the official website.

VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) Offline Bundle is selected to facilitate subsequent production of images with Intel NIC drivers. The versions used in this article are as follows:

VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) Offline Bundle the 2021-04-29 7.0 U2a | | 372.47 MB | zip Contains VIB packages and image profilesfor ESXi including VMware Tools. Use the image profiles and the VIB packages with VMware Image Builder and VMware Auto Deploy to create custom image/ISO generation forESXi deployments. MD5SUM (creates) : 9 b676a33ef191221f8e456b63d46dd55 SHA1SUM (creates) : Ea71d5cf770e64359d1668a6ca49d5c4758d51f9 SHA256SUM (creates) : e1e7988553ed6845cc68309d6c6022dedc747ab7d08eb97d7e0bd9fca15bb283Copy the code

After the download is complete, save the file as vmware-esXI-7.0 U2A-17867351-dedepot.

Then access the Community Networking Driver for ESXi to obtain the latest Community NETWORK adapter Driver of version 1.2. Save the file as Net-community-Driver_2.0.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807_18028830.zip and wait for use.

Although VMware Power CLI can be obtained by using commands, it takes a lot of work to install due to numerous dependencies. Therefore, it is better to use the offline version directly.

Access the VMware PowerCLI resource site, obtain the latest 12.3.0 software package, save the file as vmware-PowerCLI-12.3.0-17860403. zip, and wait for use.

Preparing to build the environment

Building ESXi images depends on the PowerShell environment. Although PowerShell has a Docker image, the Docker image uses the Shell of the “Core” version. As a result, the build command cannot be used properly.

Exception: The VMware.ImageBuilder module is not currently supported on the Core edition of PowerShell.
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So, we need a standard Windows environment to run PowerShell and build the image.

I personally do not have a Windows host environment, so I choose to use a pay-per-quantity cloud host for image construction. I choose a 4C8G host here, and Windows Server 2019 as the system, with a full bandwidth of about 100M.

The total cost is about 1 yuan. If you have a Windows environment, this cost can be saved. Win10 system selection, should be able to build normally.

In this case, the cloud server is used, so you need to upload the relevant software packages that have been downloaded to the server. I’m going to skip the code here and use the open source software HFS to open a file server that supports uploads, so you can upload and download files from the browser.

Start the HFS service as prompted, enable the upload function, and upload the preceding ZIP packages to the server.

Image Building

To start PowerShell as an administrator, install VMware PowerCLI.

Obtain the module path of PowerShell, place the downloaded PowerCLI package in the module directory, and decompress it.

Check the module environment variables
PS C:\> $env:PSModulePath C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules; C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules; C: \ Windows \ system32 \ WindowsPowerShell \ v1.0 \ ModulesMove package to module pathPS C: \ > mv \ VMware - PowerCLI - 12.3.0-17860403. Zip'.\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\'

Change the working directory
PS C:\> cd '.\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\'

Try to unzip the package
PS C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules> unzip .\VMware-PowerCLI-12.3.0-17860403.zip

# If the system does not have unzip, Expand -archive can be used insteadPS C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules> expans-archive. \ vmware-powercli-12.3.0-17860403. zip -destinationPath./Copy the code

After the decompression, the module is ready to install, and if you see something like this, the installation is okay.

Install the CLI softwarePS C: \ Program Files \ WindowsPowerShell \ Modules \ VMware - PowerCLI 12.3.0-17860403 - > Get - ChildItem * -recurse | Unblock - FileCheck whether the software is installedPS C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\ vmware-powercli-12.3.0-17860403 > get-module-name vmware. PowerCLI - ListAvailable directory: C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\VMware- powerCLI-12.3.0-17860403 ModuleType Version Name ExportedCommands -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- the Manifest 12.3.0... VMware.PowerCLICopy the code

Then switch to the appropriate directory and carry out the main steps of image construction, which are similar to docker’s secondary construction based on a certain image:

Add the ESXi official software package to the current PowerCLI SessionPS C:\> add-esxsoftwarededepot.\ vmware-esxi-7.0 u2a-17867351-deport. zip depot Url --------- Zip: C: \ VMware ESXi 7.0 U2a - 17867351 - depot. Zip? index.xmlDo the same for the community network card packagePS C:\> add-esxsoftwarededepot.\ net-community-driver_2.0.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807_18028830.zip Depot Url --------- Zip: C: \ Net - Community - Driver_1. VMW 2.0.0-1. 700.1.0.15843807 _18028830. Zip? index.xmlCheck the name of the ESXi image for use in the following stepsPS C:\> Get-EsxImageProfile Name Vendor Last Modified Acceptance Level ---- ------ ------------- ---------------- Esxi-7.0 U2A-17867351-no-tools VMware, Inc. 2021/4/9 5:5... PartnerSupported esXI-7.0 U2A-17867351-Standard VMware, Inc. 2021 1/4/29 0:... PartnerSupportedCopy an image configuration as a template to export the image later
PS C:\> New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile "ESXi 7.0 U2a - 17867351 - standard" -name "ESXi 7.0 U2a - 17867351 - nuc" -vendor "soulteary"Name Vendor Last Modified Acceptance Level -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ESXi 7.0 U2a - 17867351 - nuc soulteary 2021/4/29 0:... PartnerSupportedAdd the community network card package to the output image template
PS C:\> Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile  "ESXi 7.0 U2a - 17867351 - nuc" -SoftwarePackage "net-community"Name Vendor Last Modified Acceptance Level -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ESXi 7.0 U2a - 17867351 - nuc soulteary 2021/6/22 14... PartnerSupportedPackage the image and export the esXi7.iso image file
PS C:\> Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile  "ESXi 7.0 U2a - 17867351 - nuc" -ExportToIso -FilePath ESXi7.iso
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After a few seconds, you will get an image file named esxi7.iso. Use the USB boot drive burning software to burn the image to a USB drive and start the installation.

After the installation is complete, if you use a browser to access the ESXi IP address, the system automatically redirects you to HTTPS mode, accepts an “insecure” certificate, and accesses the console. Then, you can start low-cost and fast virtualization.

The last

There are many “ways” to use ESXi online, but I encourage readers of this article to try to apply for a license to use the software in a proper, legal way.

–EOF

We have a little group of people who like to do things.

In the case of no advertisement, we will talk about software and hardware, HomeLab and programming problems together, and also share some information of technical salon irregularly in the group.

Like to toss small partners welcome to scan code to add friends. (Please indicate the source and purpose, and note the real name, otherwise it will not pass the audit)

All this stuff about getting into groups

This article is published under a SIGNATURE 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Signature 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Author: Su Yang

Creation time: on June 22, 2021 statistical word count: 5644 words reading time: 12 minutes to read this article links: soulteary.com/2021/06/22/…