VMWare Deployment Guide
Intro
Welcome to the North Shore Automation VMWare, vSphere quick start guide. Note that this process normally takes a trained user about 30 minutes to complete, once all prep materials & info are gathered. We recommend you allow an hour for your first time. If you have questions and are a North Shore reseller or support client, please feel free to contact support@northshoreautomation.com or the project manager for your project.
You may not be familiar with all the terms in this guide. The links at the bottom of this article will give you more info, but here are the most commonly confusing terms laid out in a simple form. VMware vSphere is a hypervisor and management suite. The solution includes ESXi, a Type 1 hypervisor, and vCenter for infrastructure management.
We recommend you watch the video links below in order before beginning. They are repeated below with additional links offering more detail if you want to read/watch further. But if you’re in a hurry, (who isn’t?) dive in with the next section.
Core Instructional Materials
Watch these videos in order:
Once you’ve viewed these videos, please check the “Reference Links” section below for the “USB boot creation - how to” link for the OS of the machine that you are using to create your USB boot installer.
VMWare Deployment Process outline
Prep List
Make sure you have all of the following items ready before starting this process
VMWare ESXI ISO
Download from vmware.com
Or HP or other hardware vendor, depending on your hardware config
USB Creation software
See included links
Choose one:
UNetBoot - Mac OS X, Win, Linux
Rufus - Windows only
USB drive 8GB (or larger, but 8GB is required)
Internal SD card installed - check server config on purchase order
IP Addresses
ESXI Management IP address (hardware)
VM IP addresses
Computer connected to same network as Vsphere host machine & internet
This is for North Shore remote access
North Shore VM Image
Contact North Shore Project Manager for download link
Download to
Installation Steps
Note: Step by step guide with images for reference - http://www.itingredients.com/how-to-install-and-configure-vmware-esxi-6-0-step-by-step/
Create bootable USB stick
Set BIOS (Optional, if needed)
Boot to USB device
Select Boot Device if needed
Select disk drive to install onto
Select Keyboard layout
Set password for ESXI “root” account
Make secure password
Write down password
Confirm installation
Once completed, unmount USB device
Reboot server
When system reboots, configure management network for VSphere host
Press f2 to log in
Enter “root” and password you set
On the system customization window, select an option of “Configure Management Network” and hit enter.
On the “Configure Management Network”, select an IPv4 Configuration option and hit enter to change an IP.
On the IPv4 configuration option, by default “Use dynamic IPv4 Address and network configuration” option is selected.
To define static IP address, select an option “Set static IPv4 address and network configuration” by pressing space bar from the keyboard
Set the IP address
Hit enter to continue.
By default IPv6 is enabled on the Server.
Select an option “IPv6 Configuration”
hit Enter to change.
On the IPv6 configuration window “use dynamic IPv6 address and network configuration” option is selected.
Select the option “Disable IPv6” to disable IPv6.
Hit enter to continue.
On the “Configuration Management Network” window, select “DNS Configuration” and hit Enter to change the settings.
In the “DNS Configuration” window,
Define the primary DNS Server
Define alternate DNS server
Define Hostname
hit enter to continue.
Once IPv4, IPv6 and DNS configuration is completed.
Press ESC to exit the console. It will restart the management network and reboot host to apply the changes.
Once installed connect to VSphere at ESXi Management IP address from a web browser
Use “root” user credentials entered above
Contact North Shore technician for assistance deploying your North Shore VM image
Reference Links
Video Links:
Article links:
This information is provided as a courtesy by North Shore Automation. All materials linked are copyright of the creators and no warranty is made of the completeness or accuracy of these materials. Use this guide at your own risk.
