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>
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 hosts using VMware Auto Deploy or custom images can be exported to an ISO to be used for installation or upgrades. Perform the following...
