VMware Custom ISO¶

Note

Starting with ESXi 8 and newer, custom ISOs no longer need to be built. The offline bundles we provide can be installed during kickstart using bootenv overrides. See the ESXi Getting Started Guide for details.

When you need to build your own ISO for a VMware release that RackN does not provide a BootEnv for you need to build your own Template and BootEnv for it as well. This document will help you with that process. Future versions of the vmware plugin should not require this process, but as of 4.6 it is still a requirement.

For getting started with ESXi 8 and newer, see the ESXi Getting Started Guide.

For information about applying patches during installation see the ESXi Patching Guide.

For complete details on bootenv overrides, see BootEnv Overrides.

Solution¶

To obtain our offline bundles you will need to grab them from a DRP endpoint with the vmware plugin installed at the following locations:

For ESXi 6.x: (note: vmware no longer supports ESXi 6)
Firewall: http://YOUR_DRP_ENDPOINT:8091/files/plugin_providers/vmware/6.x/RKN-DRPY-FW-RULE_1.0-0.0.0003-offline_bundle-16370411.zip
Agent: http://YOUR_DRP_ENDPOINT:8091/files/plugin_providers/vmware/6.x/RKN-DRPY-Agent_1.3-0.0.0000-offline_bundle-17977725.zip
For ESXi 7.x:
Firewall: http://YOUR_DRP_ENDPOINT:8091/files/plugin_providers/vmware/7.x/RKN-DRPY-FW-RULE_1.0-0.0.0003_16333171.zip
Agent: http://YOUR_DRP_ENDPOINT:8091/files/plugin_providers/vmware/7.x/RKN-DRPY-Agent_1.3-0.0.0000_17977727.zip
For ESXi 8.x:
Agent: http://YOUR_DRP_ENDPOINT:8091/files/plugin_providers/vmware/8.x/RKN-esx-8.0.0-RKN-DRPY-Agent-1.4-0.0.0010-unsigned.zip
For ESXi 9.x: See the ESXi Getting Started Guide

Additional VIB files and tools are available at:

VIB files: http://YOUR_DRP_ENDPOINT:8091/files/plugin_providers/vmware/
DRP-Agent VIBs (v1.0-1, v1.2-1, v1.2-6, v1.3-0, v1.3-4, v1.4-0010)
DRP-Firewall-Rule VIBs (v1.0.0-3, v1.1.0-1)
Python agent: http://YOUR_DRP_ENDPOINT:8091/files/plugin_providers/vmware/drpy-4.15.0.tar.gz
Configuration: http://YOUR_DRP_ENDPOINT:8091/files/plugin_providers/vmware/drpy.conf
Scripts: http://YOUR_DRP_ENDPOINT:8091/files/plugin_providers/vmware/scripts/

Alternatively the links can be found via s3 bucket:

For ESXi 6.x: (note: vmware no longer supports ESXi 6)
Firewall: https://rackn-repo.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/packages/vmware/esxi/6.x/RKN-DRPY-FW-RULE_1.0-0.0.0003-offline_bundle-16370411.zip
Agent: https://rackn-repo.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/packages/vmware/esxi/6.x/RKN-DRPY-Agent_1.3-0.0.0000-offline_bundle-17977725.zip
For ESXi 7.x:
Firewall: https://rackn-repo.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/packages/vmware/esxi/7.0/RKN-DRPY-FW-RULE_1.0-0.0.0003_16333171.zip
Agent: https://rackn-repo.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/packages/vmware/esxi/7.0/RKN-DRPY-Agent_1.3-0.0.0000_17977727.zip
For ESXi 8+: See the ESXi Getting Started Guide

For build instructions please refer to the vmware official documentation and select the version of vsphere relevant to what you are working with: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.esxi.install.doc/GUID-48AC6D6A-B936-4585-8720-A1F344E366F9.html

Creating a Custom BootEnv¶

You will need to create a boot override profile instead of using the legacy make-esxi.sh script. This allows you to use custom ISOs without building custom BootEnvs and Templates.

Create a profile that overrides the bootenv with your custom ISO details:

YAML

Name: esxi-custom-iso
Description: Custom ESXi BootEnv override
Params:
  bootenv-customize:
    esxi9-install:  # or esxi8-install, esxi7-install depending on version
      OS:
        Name: esxi-custom
        SupportedArchitectures:
          amd64:
            IsoFile: VMware-VMvisor-Installer-YOUR-VERSION.iso
            Sha256: your_iso_sha256_hash_here
        Version: "900"  # adjust to match your ESXi version

Then upload the referenced ISO:

Bash

drpcli isos upload VMware-VMvisor-Installer-YOUR-VERSION.iso

Bulk Profile Generation¶

For creating multiple bootenv override profiles at once, use the drpcli profiles genbootenv command with a CSV file:

Bash

drpcli profiles genbootenv --csvFile /tmp/esxi-versions.csv --outputDir /tmp

Example CSV format (first 5 columns required, additional columns become params):

Text Only

Name,IsoFile,Sha256,BootEnv,Version,esxi/enable-legacy-install,vmware/esxi-version-override
esxi-702a-1787351-DU01,VMware-ESXi-7.0.2a-17867351-DU01.iso,69c00595d9feba5beb1006507e0eadcb15caaffa6bb167b79ee534700834062f,esxi-install,702,true,esxi-install
esxi-700u2-17630552,VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0U2-17630552.x86_64.iso,ff20603e4a3e75ab20c7752ca4e3e28d55d28730d6947c849a4cc5beacf9878d,esxi-install,702,true,esxi-install

This generates profiles with bootenv-customize parameters automatically. Use drpcli profiles genbootenv --help for complete usage details.

Additional Information¶

Additional resources and information related to this Knowledge Base article.

Versions¶

Keywords¶

vmware, vib, offline bundle, custom iso

Revision Information¶