Creating a custom ESXi image
Drivers for some supported hardware devices are not included as part of the base ESXi image. These devices require a driver be installed before the hardware can be used in vSphere.
How to do it…
Third-party drivers are packaged as vSphere Installation Bundles (VIBs). A VIB file is similar to a ZIP archive in that it is a single file that includes an archive of the driver files, an XML descriptor file, and a signature file. VIB files have the .vib file extension.
The required drives can be installed after ESXi has been installed, using the esxcli command:
esxcli software vib install -v <path to vib package>
When installing from a bundle or ZIP, the following esxcli command is used:
esxcli software vib install –d <path to vib zip bundle>
A custom ESXi image can also be created using the Image Builder tools included with PowerCLI. PowerCLI can be downloaded from https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI/. Custom ESXi images can be used when deploying...
