The following procedure will guide you through the steps involved in deploying ESXi 6.5 using the interactive installer:
- Boot up the server with the ESXi 6.5 ISO mapped to it.
- On the ESXi 6.5 standard boot menu, select the standard installer, as shown, and press the Enter key to continue:
- Once the installer is fully loaded into the memory, you will be prompted with a Welcome to the VMware ESXi 6.5.0 Installation screen. Now, press the Enter key to continue.
- To accept the EULA and continue, press the F11 function key.
- On the Select a Disk to Install or Upgrade screen, select a storage device to install ESXi on it. Make a cautious effort to select the correct disk for the installation, as this will erase any data on the selected disk. The selection can be made using the up/down arrow keys. With the intended storage device selected, you can optionally hit the F1 function key to view the details of the storage device selected. This is another way to make sure that you have selected the correct disk for the installation. In this case, the installer has only detected a device attached to the local controller. If necessary, you could hit F1 to fetch more details about the device:
- (Optional step) On hitting F1, you will be presented with the storage device details. Review the details and hit Enter to exit the details screen and return:
- (Optional step) When you are back to the Select a Disk to Install or Upgrade screen, hit Enter to confirm the selection and continue.
- Select the keyboard layout and hit Enter to continue. The default is US Default.
- Supply a root password and hit Enter to continue.
At this stage, the installer will scan the server hardware for additional information or prerequisites that it would need to proceed further. If any of the pre-checks fail, you will be warned accordingly. For instance, if you do not have Intel VT-x or AMD-V enabled in the BIOS, then it will warn you about that. It can also warn you about unsupported devices detected during the scan. Most warnings will not stop you from proceeding further, but will only indicate what will not be configured or supported. Hit Enter to continue.
- At the Confirm Install screen, review the device that will be erased and partitioned. Hit F11 to start the installation or hit F9 to go back and make any changes needed.
- You will now see the Installing ESXi 6.5.0 screen showing the progress of the installation. This will take a few minutes to complete.
- Once the installation is complete, you will be presented with an Installation Complete message screen. At this point, eject or unmount the CD/DVD drive or image, and hit Enter to reboot the machine.
- A rebooting server message is displayed, indicating that the server is about to be rebooted. There is nothing that you have to do on this screen.
- Once the reboot is complete, you will be at the main screen for ESXi 6.5.0:
- Once the installation is complete, you will need to supply the basic network configuration. The next recipe, Configuring ESXi Management Network, covers this.