Image Builder Archives

HP Customized VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1 Installation Media Does Not Include Emulex OneConnect be2net CNA Drivers

UPDATE: HP has fixed this issue with their branded installation media. Use the following link to download directly from HP: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/software/vmware/esxi-image.html For general information on performing this process in case drivers are excluded from the installation media in the future, read on! I recently decided to update a couple hosts in our demo center to vSphere 5.1. These hosts are HP Blades (BL460 and BL490 G7s) in a C7000 chassis with Emulex CNAs and Flex-10/FlexFabric Virtual Connects. These servers are all configured to boot from SAN using FCoE LUNs. To get started, the first place I went was to HP’s [...]

Rapid Provisioning vSphere ESXi 5.0 Hosts Using Image Builder and Auto Deploy (Part 1)

If you haven’t heard or read some of the new capabilities in vSphere 5 around rapid provisioning hosts, allow me to introduce you to Auto Deploy (previously Fling). Auto Deploy is a PXE boot process that loads ESXi into memory thereby eliminating any need for local storage, even USB boot thumb drives. This capability is currently limited in that you may only have one Auto Deploy server per vCenter instance. This pretty much rules out the notion of load balancing the TFTP service, providing multiple image distribution points, or otherwise protecting Auto Deploy with methods other than VMware HA. However, [...]