Build your own VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5 Datacenter, starting with one PC

[@imsun8812]

Very nicely and slowly explained and well absorbed. This one hr video worth studying 1000 hrs. Thanks a whole lot putting up such an informative video.

[@TinkerTry]

imsun Wow, that's very kind of you. Thank you!

[@krishmaharaj2999]

This video was invaluable to me as a novice user of these VMware products. Thank you for putting together such a thoughtful and helpful tutorial! The detailed instructions to begin on your website were perfect as well. Thanks again!

[@TinkerTry]

Krish Maharaj You are welcome, sir, glad it helped!

[@carmine2559]

Great! I'm planning the transition from Citrix xenserver 6.2 infrastructure based lab to vmware vsphere and have been researching for weeks. There is a lot of content out here on this and filtering out the garbage to get to the good stuff is by far the most time consuming. If you need valuable information then, consider this video screened and filtered out from the garbage! Thank You.

[@michaelaowens0905]

I seriously want to thank you!!! I have watched so many videos and read through so much till it has become painful but the small company I work for can't afford a lot so I have been using OLD servers to try and learn all I can and your ground up is making life so much easier, thank you!!!

[@TimotiTangiruaine-ck]

Hi Paul. This is one of the best tutorials I've seen on this subject...especially with the vCSA appliance. Great job.

[@TinkerTry]

Timoti Tangiruaine Thank you, glad you liked it!

[@ReubenHorner]

This is probably the easiest to understand and clearest most helpful video of this sort i have ever come across

[@TinkerTry]

Wow, thank you, I really appreciate that. Means a lot to me.

[@atppilot753]

Thanks so much for taking the time to put this together, with your approach I now have a different perspective on ESXi. Brilliant!

[@TinkerTry]

+Martin Guilfoyle Thank you Martin. Glad I helped. I try to keep an open mind. Yeah, it's an enterprise product, but even the latest ESXi 6.0 can work out at home too TinkerTry.com/installvsphere60-video-now-available with EVALExperience legitimizing the need TinkerTry.com/evalexperience

[@carlin2k]

Paul Thank you very much, have dabbled in esxi for a while with a single host and could never get vcenter working because I didn't have true dns. You video was very informative and I now have vcenter running and looking towards adding another host to play with vMotion and Storage vMotion. This will really help me out studying for my up coming exams. Thanks

[@TinkerTry]

Exactly what I was hoping for, knowing how those DNS quirks had bitten me in my efforts to get the vcenter appliance working. It's gotten even easier, with latest vcenter appliance no longer requiring it's host file be tweaked at all!

[@Classeke7777]

Great Video Paul! Thanks for taking the time to do it. I just built out my new esxi server with the vcenter appliance. Its running on a Intel NUC.

[@TinkerTry]

Russell Nitting Thank you! Hope to hear more about how that goes, if you don't mind. Perhaps I'll add a NUC section in my "Superguide: Home virtualization server enthusiasts’ colorful variety of ESXi whiteboxes" TinkerTry.com/superguide-home-virtualization-server-enthusiasts-colorful-variety-of-esxi-whiteboxes

[@Classeke7777]

***** Sounds good. Here are the websites i used for customizing esxi installation media. Easy to follow and worked like a charm. I installed mine on a Intel NUC D54250WYKH1. Hardware added 16gig max ram, 256msata & 250 SSD. Currently im running ESX 5.5 eval and Vcenter appliance eval. www.virten.net/2013/09/esxi-5-x-installation-on-intel-nuc-fails-with-no-network-adapters/ pricklytech.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/installing-vmware-vsphere-esxi-5-5-on-an-intel-haswell-nuc-d34010wyh1/ my-virt.alfadir.net/2014/11/home-lab-extended-with-intel-nuc-pc-configured-for-vsan/

[@TinkerTry]

Give it took a few "rehearsals" that didn't work out so well, glad to hear this method is working out, not just for me, but for others too.

[@NathanWrightGEEOTTO]

Studying for my Associate exam (not new to the field but new to the formal processes) great video!

[@danb6735]

Thanks! This was super helpful. I like that you are thorough and don't skip a single step.

[@sachinunaik]

Great tutorial and loved your pace and delivery of presentation. Very detailed and saved me tons of hours to read through the documentation.

[@TinkerTry]

Wow, great to hear that, thank you!

[@davidfullstone]

Amazing tutorial! Perfect balance to give you what you need to get up and running and easily build upon. It's rare you find a tutorial that gets it just right. I was using VMWare Fusion on my Mac powerbook for my Oracle RAC and Data Guard labs. I've now freed up half my hard drive and three quarters of my RAM.

[@uselessoldman7964]

Congratulations on a EXCELLENT introductory tutorial to ESX, in depth and at a speed everyone should be able to follow. Only thing that rather confused me to start with was the RUFUS USB boot why not then install to primary bootable partition? Now to try your exercise for real and see what mess I get myself into.

[@TinkerTry]

Well, I'd prefer to be able preserve primary storage between ESXi installs. In other words, by installing to USB, I can change ESXi versions, while leaving my primary storage filesystems alone. It just reads from (slow flash) drive then sits there in memory, running full speed, a reason why a lot of folks prefer to stick with USB flash drives for the ESXi install. See also: TinkerTry.com/rufus-takes-2-minutes-to-create-a-bootable-usb-flash-drive-for-esxi-installation and in the spirit of keeping things simple for a home lab, worry about this article isn't likely a concern, but is nevertheless important for some folks to consider: kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1033696

[@SomeGuyInSandy]

Wow! Really nice presentation. I have to install this tomorrow, and have never dealt with it before. What an awesome resource! Thanks!

[@lupagonzales]

this video is created with high quality and at a very short time proves very important points of vSphere. Thanks

[@TinkerTry]

You are welcome! Nice to hear from Czech Republic (I'm in Germany myself right now).

[@lupagonzales]

Hello Paul, world is very small :-) Mirek

[@natkfc]

Awesome video! This has really helped me to get my home lab up and running. It's nice to have a video to help do things, since the VMWare help pages can be misleading!

[@joansin007]

Nice walk through on setting up a lab to get familiar with vCenter and the host. I recommend using vCenter on 2K8R2 or 2K12R2 for the fact I don't care for the appliance. Nice video regardless of your preference.

[@iftinvirtual8577]

Thanks far too kind Paul.. This tutorial was great and very easy to follow through. Looking forward to browse all other tutorials on VMware.

[@TinkerTry]

IftinVirtual You're welcome! Consider

[@balance828]

excellent guide, I recently upgraded to esxi 5.5 and knew nothing about vcenter, I thought I had to install the vcenter server but could not get SSO working. vsphere web client could not connect to vcenter. thanks to your guide I was able to setup vCSA with minimal hassle! also love the cyberpower guide, brought the cyberpower last year but couldnt figure out how to tell esxi to shut down when power is out.

[@leisuresuitlarry8311]

Thank you Paul for this tutorial. I just wanted to let you know I really appreciate the time you took to post it and I very much appreciate your efforts!

[@TinkerTry]

***** Why thank you, John!

[@sammmy206]

Thanks Paul, by far this is the most informative and simple to follow video.

[@TinkerTry]

Why thank you, Sammy!

[@dang1995]

Thanks for helping me get my vSphere up and running Paul. Very comprehensive! Great work

[@Daniszewskis]

That was a great video. Nice pace and very informative. I appreciate this very much as I am just starting to learn about VMWare. I am a subscriber now and will be browsing through other videos.

[@Rikunj]

Good Job Paul: Great tutorial, friendly voice, systematic presentation.

[@efox29]

This was extremely detailed and well planned ahead. Great video.

[@TinkerTry]

efox29 Thank you. Working on a similar video for vSphere 6.0 now. It's a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

[@TinkerTry]

Yeah, at 36:30 you'll see me create this VMware thing called a Datacenter. If you try to skip that step, you won't even be able to add a host (the server where you've installed ESXi 5.5). Once I let the wizard add the Datacenter (that you can name anything you'd like), you'll then see me able to add my first host to the Datacenter. When you say you got lost, did the install itself work out for you? (character limit here KZbin, perhaps post comments TinkerTry article)

[@lowdownshame1]

Thanks to this vid, I made the leap from vSphere 5.1 -- vSphere 5.5+vCenter 5.5. Appreciate this comprehensive walk-thru. Still trying to get used to doing everything via the 'web client'... to me, it seems a little bit slow especially when opening and utilizing a vm console. I don't know if I'll ever be 100% on board with everything going web-based.

[@lawrenceS59]

Question: At 5:46 in the video, you eject the usb key and go to the bios menu on the server. Is the BIOS screen you're looking at inside VMWare workstation?

[@TinkerTry]

Lawrence Smith Ah, yes, that's the actual Intel Core i7 system called vZilla you're seeing there: www.tinkertry.com/vzilla no use of VMware Workstation here. Sorry for the confusion. Think of the view I provided as if I'm aiming a video camera at the screen of the remote server (I'm using a KVM over IP device to record that system). Hope this clears things up!

[@lawrenceS59]

***** Yes that clears it up. Thanks.

[@khansheheyar]

very good Paul Braren . excellent tutorial. I hope you come up with more interactive videos.

[@TinkerTry]

Thanks!

[@Babylonsteller1]

Hey - i really enjoyed your video, it was key to my success. You nailed it all the way thru. There was only 1 major hick-up for me , and that was when I tried to launch Vcenter for the 1st time thru the Browser ( I failed 7 ways to Sunday) -keep in mind, I did this inside my work network- ... (stupid Proxy!) , i turned of our manual proxy settings in the browser Internet COnnection Tab, and Kaboom- i was good to go.Im sure I could have asked Jeeves or something for help, but i decided to start over and rebuild everything from scratch for my own training purposes.... Thanks again.. I diggit

[@TinkerTry]

Cool, thanks for the comments. Make sense that proxy (or socks) could get in the way of the new browser based client, another things for folks to think about, as they wean us all from the vSphere client. Glad you fought through it!

[@wchrisyu]

Thanks for shooting this vid. SSO issues were making me tear my hair out.

[@seniortaco100]

Paul, nice job with this video presentation. It provides a very good instruction. I have a couple of questions: In 10:24, are you installing ESXi in the USB Flash Drive after it boot from it? In 50:40 - why is set to 750 GB and Thin provision? Could you specify the hard disk capacity differently right there? Thanks a lot for your attention.

[@SteveHiott]

Paul, I notice you had a window showing your machine that ESXi 5.5 was to be installed. Are you using putty to remote in to this machine?

[@Ribster176]

A super useful instructional and very clearly laid out. Thanks!

[@PSL1969]

Hi, I tried following along, but one thing I don't understand is that on the downloaded client, when I first connect to the exsi, there is already a datastore that takes up whatever space on the drive -- but later in the Web client, a new datastore is created. Why, and what happens to the old one? I ran into a problem adding a host to the datacenter, where the licensing would not allow me to, because I was using an evaluation license: License not available to perform the operation. The host is licensed with VMware vSphere 5 Hypervisor. The license edition of vCenter Server does not support VMware vSphere 5 Hypervisor. Don't know how to solve this, while still staying free. Also, my old VM's were on a 2TB 5400rpm drive, and I never managed to fully log in to the web client. It would always time out or error, because of the thrashing on the slow disk. Once I copied the exsi vm to my ssd it went smooth. I guess an ssd is almost required for such a lab? Great video :-) Edit: forgot to ask: the server appliance. Can it be shut off after everything is installed, configured and running without breaking things? It makes no sense that we have to have an extra vm running just because we have to use the web client? Oh, and you have a pleasant voice, which helps in the explaination of technical stuff alot

[@valdecircarvalho]

Still a masterpiece! Watched it again today

[@sjslall]

Hey Tinker, sorry to bother u again could u tell me which tool is being used to access the motherboard bios for the esxi host install and what specifics need to be ensured before i purchase the board and processor

[@crabcake1420]

Instead of proceeding to the yellow/gray screen after the initial boot "esix" screen it goes blank. I'm trying this on a troublesome power edge 2950, Abby suggestions?

[@amitrajsingh1362]

Very nice and informative tutorial. Loved your way of presenting the things.

[@RasGolo]

What an awesome hand-son tutorial! I am fairly new to VMware; can you suggest which tutorials I should focus on? I already have a domain network running out of my basement - Server 2012. Would love to create a VMware lab environment. Thanks Paul, you are an inspiration.

[@gumbystern]

Hi Paul, i am having difficulties downloading vCenter server appliance OVA file, i can only use 5.5 in a home lab as 6.0 does not support my processor type. I get an error message in my vmware saying You either are not entitled or do not have permissions to download this product. i am not sure how else to get this for my home lab.

[@TinkerTry]

Curious, did you install the vCenter appliance on a SATA3 speed SSD?

[@Imhemantnegi]

What is the hardware requirement for esxi installation

[@0saptarshi]

I can't install vcsa 5.5 from vmware..can you give me another link? Its saying "You either are not entitled or do not have permissions to download this product. Check with your My VMware Super User, Procurement Contact or Administrator. If you recently purchased this product through VMware Store or through a third-party, try downloading later." Please help me out.

[@Aldo-Grillo]

I would like to thank you for the excellent instructions. I have a dedicated server at a hosting company but my concern is no management over the RAID drives that are mirrored. Would you suggest putting ESXi on a USB and allowing the hosting company to install it on the dedicated server and then having vCenter to format the drives and can be managed? This is only of thought after your video and cost is a factor in putting a SAS dedicated file store

[@TinkerTry]

Aldo Grillo I have a bunch of articles about seeing the health of an LSI RAID5 array under ESXitinkertry.com/search?s=9265 but it's a complex question. It's not really vCenter formatting (it just glues the many ESXi servers (hosts) together with a single management UI). That nitpicking aside, yes, installing on USB is good for simplicity and particularly home labs (which is what my videos and site focus on), so I think you'll like this article tinkertry.com/rufus-takes-2-minutes-to-create-a-bootable-usb-flash-drive-for-esxi-installation but for pulling together a supported platform that VMware would completely support, that's more a consultation matter, feel free to contact me at TinkerTry.com/contact I hope this helps.

[@capricci1]

Paul, Appreciate the video. helped a ton. I did run into a problem though; of when adding a host to the Datacenter, was not allowing me to add the ESXi into it. Roughly said 'The host may not be available on the network, a network config problem may exist, or the management services on this host may not be responding'. Host file is all pointing correctly, IPs are all pointing correctly. Nic cards are right. I even built a secondary ESXi and was allowed to add that into it, but the previous one I could not. the vmware KBs were not of any help.

[@TinkerTry]

capricci1 Can you try adding the host to the vCenter's "Datacenter" by IP instead, just to see if that works? If you SSH to the vCenter appliance, can you ping the esxi hostname by name? Just some networking troubleshooting suggestions.

[@capricci1]

***** yeah, i tried with the actual name and ip to no avail. Did not test thro esxi or vcenter cli to see if they can talk. Will let you know how that goes and if you have any other suggestions dont hesitate to let me know. Thanks.

[@dileepn1982]

hey Paul Braren.. got this setup working on a nested environment however my usb keyboard and mouse wireless doesnt work after that.. if i shut down the esxi 5.5 then works flawlessly however doesnt work without that

[@gapsilog]

the workaround for the sso worked wonders! thanks

[@TinkerTry]

gaps Cool, glad to hear it!

[@RecycleBin0]

can I configure everything locally if I wanted instead of using a remote PC to configure each VM, I have a pc id like to have a locally configured type one hypervisor on

[@kansukre]

Paul I want to say thank you awesome you take the time to present a great work I am subscriber now

[@altafhussainoffcial]

dear paul , kindly help me, where need to be inable the bios setting i.e in main machine or virtual console? and from where can i get lantrnix slshp kvm console software. please help me. my work got stuck , help me any

[@dannyneunan]

Could I import older VM's from my ESX 4.0 environment into the new vSphere ESXi 5.5?

[@BruX013]

Hello, I'm stuck at 18:53. I do not see any hard disks available. I'm obviously doing something wrong. Currently, I have my ESXi host on an USB drive. I also have the VMware vSphere Client on a regular workstation that I'm using to install the OVF template. As soon as I get to choosing a drive, there's nothing. Any help would be great! Thank you.

[@TinkerTry]

Perhaps this article helps get you pointed in the right direction? pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc%2FGUID-5AC611E0-7CEB-4604-A03C-F600B1BA2D23.html

[@BruX013]

***** I would just like to say thank you so very much for this well thought out and precise tutorial. If it wasn't for this video, I am not sure how I would of configured an ESXi lab. You have saved me lots of time and frustration and for that I thank you.

[@truesightgrabber]

how you kvm to motherboard ?

[@mastersrybnik]

Thanks for video. I watched the whole wthing even thou I know how this goes. You are smoothing with what you do and on point. That hosts tip is golden mate. One thing I didnt enjoy is you voice disapearing now and than. Looking forward to more instructive VMware clips. GG

[@RaviBowman]

I've been trying to do this and I am running into an issue that I don't see you encounter when you do it. I have the exact same board and configured the bios the same way. The only difference I can see is I am on BIOS version p2.20. I get "No Network Adapters" error. Can you offer any suggestions?

[@PetervanderPlaat]

Thanks for the excellent tutorials. Especially the hints ans tips to adjust time and host files

[@trevski65]

Outstandingly good video you have a real talent for making things easy to understand. Thanks again TC

[@jjknow85]

Thank you so much Paul this tutorial was so helpful in my internship project...but I have one question why we used the winscp

[@TinkerTry]

machiano momano Given my audience is a lot of Windows server folks who might not have never touched Linux, it's a lot simpler to use this GUI to get/edit a file. That said, for a single edit needed in my later vSphere 6.0 video here kzbin.info/www/bejne/fp6anIR-fpmMpK8 , I did go with vi editor, not sure if that was a good idea or not. Not unless more folks like you take a moment to type up some feedback. Glad to hear this video helped you!

[@NawarALMallouhi]

***** Sorry to ask you a non related question to your video , But how can i copy files from the host directly to the USB HDD connected to it ? as i do have many VMs that i would like to backup. and i don't want to copy through network connections.

[@konstantinosxanthopoulos9533]

I'd like to thank you for this very useful video. It really introduced me in some pretty cool stuff. Spot on!

[@jonassteinberg3779]

This is a very well done video of a complicated procedure. Thank you.

[@mac9955]

Paul, @ 18:30 while installing the "where do you want to store the virtual machine files", it doesn't find any drives. I don't have any raid cards installed ( sata3 or other wise ). All that's attached to my Dell T7500 is the thumb drive for the ESXI host and two internal drives, one SSD and one sata 15K speed drive. Please tell me why I can't see any drives for the destination part. Thank you in advance. MAC

[@TinkerTry]

***** I'm hoping this article will help, if formatting the empty drives is all that's needed: blog.pluralsight.com/how-to-manage-vmfs-datastores If the drives are both attached to the same AHCI controller and aren't seen by ESXi, perhaps they're on an incompatible AHCI controller, a problem that can be fixed with a VIB install, which I sort of cover (for new installs) here: www.tinkertry.com/use-esxi-customizer-gui-to-inject-multiple-driver-vibs-into-your-esxi-installer-iso/ Let us know how you fare!

[@mac9955]

***** Paul, You sir are a genius. Thank you.

[@qizhang1965]

Nice video! One problem I am experiencing is that no accessible disk/LUN is shown on the Adding a Datastore wizard. Any idea to solve this problem? Thank you!

[@johnkwon6276]

Thanks Paul. I wonder how vSS or vDS are configured in order to make vmkernal ports and groups communicate each other. Do you have different vlan ID for the port groups in vswitches? Did you use a virtual router or layer 3 switch to flow network traffic among the vlans? How many vmnets did you assign to VMWare workstation and how those vmnets are connected to switch port to carry vlan traffic?

[@TinkerTry]

John Kwon Nah, I kept it all super simple, one default VLAN ID, with a focus on the easiest, fastest ways of installing and getting going, without compromising functionality. The reality is that many folks rebuild every 60 days, although EVALExperience may change all that TinkerTry.com/evalexperience You might enjoy more about VSS and VDS at communities.vmware.com/thread/461562 Thank you for the comments, John!

[@chucklewis8640]

Paul are you aware of any malware detection that can be used on EXSi 5.5 or does the OS come with something like ClamAV (RSA and Industrial Defender include with the OS install) that can be run with a cron job or doesn't VMware support such a thing?

[@ardisraymond6382]

Thanks so much Paul, I use my laptop: Fujitsu AH530, core i3, support VT. but when i install esxi platform appear:"no network dapters ". i trying driver, and using update "esxi-customizes" , but not successfull how to fix it???

[@abshirahmed6895]

thanks a lot Paul Braren, great video with simple explanations

[@TinkerTry]

+Abshir Ahmed Glad it helped.

[@surikafourie1226]

Brilliant video thanks for taking the time to make it, very informative

[@herbertmcgrathjr2755]

I did this without your video made several mistakes , but i am glad i tried it first, because of the leg work i had to do, to get it up and running, since i am fairly new, using ova and ovf, files, then i found your video, the intricate setttings are superb and your approach is esxcellent, i have stopped at 36: minusts , i am using 5.1 esxi, because my machine only has 4 gb so when i put esxi 5.5 error was i had 3.94 gb needed 3.97,,, so if besides getting more memory ... any suggestions.... but i have to say very excllenent, stopped at chapter 5 on your video.. .. will update the rest later 'thanks you

[@mac9955]

Paul, I'm currently a Systems Admin and I recently passed the three VCA exams as well as the VCP5-DT all within four months. I also hold the following certifications; MCSE and CCNA with over ten years of experience. I duplicated the excellent lab that you've posted with relative ease on several occasions. My question is how can I break into that side of the "VM" house with the limited experience I have and what do you think the salary range would be for someone in my position? Your opinion would be much appreciated. Thank you MC

[@tallahassZ]

+Niccolo Machiavelli Most larger shops have moved to ESXi for a lower TCO and ease of use... physical servers dominate the SOHO market, but VMware is quickly making inroads to that market as well. I've been an enterprise sys admin as well as an IT consultant fpr small business, so i've seen this VM product mature over the last 10 years (been in IT for 20 years). Salary is dependent of the market place ... lots of skilled IT folks looking for work makes the market value lower.

[@implying921]

Hi, great tutorial thanks. Just wondering - I'm going to buy a cheapish tower server soon, do most modern motherboards and CPU's have the virtualization option in the bios? Thanks

[@barcigian]

+Paul Braren, when I try to deploy vCenter Appliance it returns: This OVF package uses features that are not supported when deploying directly to an ESX host. Thi OVF package requires support for vApps with multiple VMs. What should I do???? Thanks in advance!

[@TinkerTry]

I did not run into that issue, as you've probably noticed from the video. Can you share the exact filename for the OVA file you're attempting to use, just in case that helps me figure out what's different in your environment versus my environment. Thank you!

[@barcigian]

***** vCenter VCOPS. I noticed that is not the correct file! =) I'm downloading the one from TinkerTry hopping that works!!! VMWare should make things clearer for us students!!!

[@barcigian]

***** It Worked!!! Like you said it's VM running inside a VM running inside a VM (I also deployed OpenStack over vCenter)! It's goddamn sluggish!!!! Thanks a lot for this tutorial!!!!! You saved my life big time!

[@Billbear24]

Great video, finding your videos and website extremely useful! Thanks!

[@TinkerTry]

Billbear24 You are welcome, Billbear24!

[@lekeoluwatosin]

This tutorial just gave me hope about building my ESXi homelab. Thanks Paul Braren, you're an amazing tech instructor. What hardware will you recommend?

[@TinkerTry]

You'll probably enjoy this article: TinkerTry.com/superguide-home-virtualization-server-enthusiasts-colorful-variety-of-esxi-whiteboxes Thanks for the kind words, and for visiting!

[@lekeoluwatosin]

I've actually succeeded in buying a server already running 5.5. Thanks Paul

[@ellenclary]

Thanks for the detailed video. My bootable USB stick won't launch the installer. Must be something I'm missing. Hope I don't need the KVM software to configure it further.

[@TinkerTry]

+Ellen Clary Probably just a BIOS configuration issue, try different USB ports, and try putting BIOS into Default mode or UEFI mode. I cannot possibly predict how it will or will not work for you, given the wide variety of consumer motherboards out there, some of which will never work smoothly with enterprise-focused VMware ESXi.

[@guerrierdjidson5159]

I can't download them on vmware website

[@bedevere007]

Great video. I saw you had a console connection to the ESX installation. How did you get that window on your desktop screen?

[@TinkerTry]

fractal_force No problem, glad to tell you, it's a Lantronix device, mentioned at tinkertry.com/a-bunch-of-stuff-broke-this-month-learned-a-lot-fixing-it-all and here kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXObZq2ghNqNo7M&lc=z12vsf5qnp2owno5j04ci5qy4kedjlci5y00k

[@TinkerTry]

***** More info here too:kzbin.info/www/bejne/n4LJhah3mbGZj9k&lc=z13kchzjjsq3zzsmr235vf1otyrnj1qdi

[@MooTrader]

Great video, really helped me set my vCenter up - my very first one! I'm now running 5.5 on mooZilla. :)

[@venky1440]

This Video really awesome for beginners & i'm able to bringup my system up & running. Thanks alot

[@robertsocks7857]

Thank you Paul. Great video. I was able to boot from my flash drive but during the install if ESXi I got the following error: Secure Boot Violation The system found unauthorized changes on the firmware, operating system or UEFI drivers. Press [ok] to run the next boot device, or enter directly to BIOS Setup if there are no other boot devices installed. Go to BIOS Setup > Advanced > Boot and change the current boot device into other secured boot device. any thoughts on this. Thanks again, Best, Robert.

[@HarshaWudayagiri]

Hello, I have an issue. My mouse and keyboard doesn't work half way through the installation. Please provide your recommendation

[@TinkerTry]

Harsha Wudayagiri I think posting the details of your hardware configuration in VMware's Community communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsphere/content?filterID=contentstatus[published]~objecttype~objecttype[thread] could help, or if an unsupported home lab, perhaps at forums.thehomeserverblog.com Sorry, I'm just unable to weigh in on hardware I haven't tested myself, and yes, there are admittedly a lot of things that can go wrong during install if the hardware hasn't been tested by VMware: www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

[@windego40]

First of all, great video. It is very easy to follow and understand whats going on, thank you for posting it. The only question i have is on the very beginning. You mention that ESXI will install into the USB, does this mean that you would need to leave the usb plugged in at all times?

[@TinkerTry]

Yes.

[@craigswann6659]

Assuming I wanted to have EXSI installed on bare metal, would the setup pretty much be the same ( I'm familiar with installing OS's from bootable USB drives)? Is there some reason I would not want to run my hypervisor on a logical server volume?

[@Cihzzle]

Hi Paul great video,I am very new to VMware and I stuck at booting from USB..Tried all options like booting legacy option and just keeps getting errors.How did you boot with that fatal1ty?By the way I am using a dell xps8700 that is running windows 8.1.

[@droog09]

Hello ! Thank u for this tutorial :) but i'm looking to build vmware ESXi 5.5 on a poweredge 2900 server using USB, do You have any idea how to do that ?

[@TinkerTry]

Don't have that server, so specific procedure unknown. But the general approach to getting the USB media ready over here: TinkerTry.com/rufus-takes-2-minutes-to-create-a-bootable-usb-flash-drive-for-esxi-installation Hope this helps!

[@TinkerTry]

Thank you for the feedback Michael, glad it helped!

[@mac9955]

Paul, Thank you again for the advise below. I found this on a Dell site and although I haven't yet tried it yet, it would appear that Dell has bundled the storage drivers into the ESXI ISO for my T5500 computer. I'll report back after I have some time to run the lab. MAC

[@mac9955]

Sorry, the web link is www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=20VNP

[@soltl]

One of the Best videos I have ever seen. Great Job!!!

[@robertsocks7857]

Hi Paul. Thank you for the video. I just want to confirm one thing. Can I install ESXi on a standard workstation? I'm building a new PC tower for this purpose. The machine will be an i7, with 16GB of Ram running win8. Thoughts? Thanks again.

[@SuperPatrickjuh]

hey Paul, you have great video's... Thanx. However, i have a problem....i don't seem to be able to add a host to vcenter.server appliance 5.5. esxi 5.5 but same problem with esxi 6. I can get vcenter 6 to work running on a server2012, but i preffer the appliance I folowed the video. with putty i can ping both system by name. I eddited the host files. but when i want to ad the host to vcenter i get the following error Call "Datacenter.QueryConnectionInfo" for object "Datacenter" on vCenter Server "vcenter" failed. Could you or anyone help me please?

[@rbmohler1]

Paul, Thank you for this wonderful step by step video. I am using it to set up a virtual lab and am having difficulty with the VCA download. Has something changed with VMware's software trial policy. This product does not seem to be available for download from VMware unless you sign in with a valid licensed account.

[@TinkerTry]

Robert Mohler Sigh, yes, they've made changes/harder, still investigating...

[@rbmohler1]

***** Thank you for your reply and information from VMware regarding downloading of vCenter Server appliance trial code. Just as a side note, I had contacted VMware directly and got a different answer than the helpful one provided by you. It is so awesome to have such a straight forward guided tour through VMwares product suite installation. This has helped bring VMwares product suite into focus for me.

[@TinkerTry]

I found it, the answer to how to download, see: www.tinkertry.com/problems-downloading-vmware-vsphere-vmware-vcenter-server-5-5-update-1c-appliance/

[@digitalwarrior221]

Hello Paul! How do you made the trick to display the BIOS setup in a window? Thank you for the great video!

[@TinkerTry]

Got all the details for you over here: TinkerTry.com/esxi-5-1-can-run-lsi-megaraid-in-a-vm/#comment-1317489856

[@andikiat6386]

Hi Paul, Thanks for the video, the most clear and concise of all esxi videos. I'm planning to build a whitebox for esxi using Intel Z97 chipset mobo. A couple of questions, will esxi recognise onboard raid? I've read your post about LSI Megaraid 9265 8i, but i it's already discontinued. What raid controller do you think has similar capabilities (and close price range) ? TIA.

[@TinkerTry]

9266 is very similar, and would work fine. Onboard Intel RAID requires Windows software, so generally, ESXi won't support such "light" raid solutions. See also: TinkerTry.com/superguide-home-virtualization-server-enthusiasts-colorful-variety-of-esxi-whiteboxes TinkerTry.com/haswell-z97-limited-to-32gb-memory-max-an-unfortunate-reality-for-virtualization-enthusiasts

[@mac9955]

Great video, thank you. At about 24 minutes in you assign a static IP of 10.10.1.51 and a mask of 255.255.255.0 shouldn't the mask reflect the 10. address with 255.0.0.0?

[@mac9955]

Paul, Was the question too difficult? I'm new to computers and I thought that a professional like yourself could answer this simple question. Anyone else want to answer this for me please. Sincerely, MC

[@TinkerTry]

Good eye, *****, glad you paid attention to detail. I'm no network expert, and make no claims to be. I'm not sure I see that my subnet mask as wrong, see also: www.subnetonline.com/pages/subnet-calculators/ip-subnet-calculator.php For example, here: www.subnetmask.info choose Class C and type in 10.10.1.51 and hit the "Calculate" button. You got my attention, and yes, I was away on vacation for a bit, sorry for the delayed response.

[@ezedaddy1]

Hi paul, Thanks for this tutorial. what is the name of the video before this one, that kind of lays the foundation for this.

[@TinkerTry]

obi ojiekwe I'm sorry, I guess I have to admit, I don't believe I really have one.

[@MatterSec]

It wont connect to the web client, says "Webpage not available".. but everything is working fine etc...?

[@TinkerTry]

I'm not sure where to begin, need a bit more info, let's start with, can you ping the vcenter appliance's IP address?

[@yinadad]

Hi, I am trying to follow your videos and installing the ESXi on a Lenovo Thinkcenter M93p desktop, but running into problems when intially booting with the USB I created using Rufus. About midway through the installation I get a pop-up on the screen saying the following: No Network Adapters No network adapters were detected. Either no network adapters are physically connected to the system or a suitable driver cannot be located. A third party driver may be required. Ensure that at least one network adapter is physically connected to the system before installation. This particular desktop has two network adapters, one on the motherboard and another on a PCI card, so I don't understand this message. Has anybody else run into this issue ?

[@TinkerTry]

Here's 2 articles that tells folks how to get Realtek drivers back into the installer: www.tinkertry.com/use-esxi-customizer-gui-to-inject-multiple-driver-vibs-into-your-esxi-installer-iso/ www.tinkertry.com/install-esxi-5-5-with-realtek-8111-or-8168-nic/

[@TinkerTry]

***** Hope this helps a bit? It won't work on all hardware out there, and naturally, VMware is really only interested in fully supporting high end server gear. for most folks, free VMware Player makes more sense: TinkerTry.com/vmware-workstation-10-or-vmware-player-6-plus when just "kicking the tires," especially since your ESXi host would largely become a headless server, with no useful local video output (you can't get to your VMs from the local console).

[@arturosandoval1749]

hi Tinkerguy i dont understand how you load the vmware installation inside your windows 8.1 after changing the UEFI set up Utility. ??????. do i need a motherboard with those features?

[@TinkerTry]

If you look at the accompanying article I link to, it will hopefully be clearer at explaining that I just used Windows 8.1 to create the bootable USB install media (I left BIOS alone, doesn't need to be UEFI). Hope this helps1