A while back I wrote a scripted install aka “cfg” file, and I just noticed I never published it. Check it out, it might be useful in one way or another. It also available for download here!

Especially changing the amount of active nics in a team can be useful, and enabling vmotion via the vimsh command. This changed since ESX 3.5. Setting IP-Hash was also a nice one to figure out


# Regional Settings
keyboard us
lang en_US
langsupport --default en_US
timezone Europe/Amsterdam

# Installatition settings
skipx
mouse none
firewall –disabled
# Unencrypted root password:
rootpw –iscrypted
reboot
install

# Driver disks

# Load drivers

# Bootloader options
bootloader –location=mbr –driveorder=sda

# Authentication
auth –enableshadow –enablemd5

# Partitioning
clearpart –all –drives=sda –initlabel
part /boot –fstype ext3 –size=250 –ondisk sda –asprimary
part / –fstype ext3 –size=6144 –ondisk sda –asprimary
part /var/log –fstype ext3 –size=2048 –ondisk sda
part swap –size=1600 –ondisk sda –asprimary
part /tmp –fstype ext3 –size=1024 –ondisk sda
part None –fstype vmkcore –size=110 –ondisk sda
part None –fstype vmfs3 –size=1 –grow –ondisk sda

# Network Configurations # VARIABEL
network –device eth0 –bootproto static –ip 10.40.254.201 –netmask 255.255.254.0 –nameserver 10.40.1.251 –hostname esx01.yellow-bricks.local –addvmportgroup=0

# VMWare License options
vmaccepteula
vmlicense –mode=server –server=27000@vc01.yellow-bricks.local –edition=esxfull –features=backup,vsmp

%vmlicense_text

%packages
@base

%post

cat > /tmp/esxcfg.sh <

#!/bin/sh

# enable SSH root-access
mv /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/sshd_config.old
/bin/sed -e “s/PermitRootLogin no/PermitRootLogin yes/g” /etc/ssh/sshd_config.old > /etc/ssh/sshd_config
/etc/init.d/sshd restart

# Upsize console memory
mv -f /etc/vmware/esx.conf /etc/vmware/esx.conf.old
/bin/sed -e ’s/boot\/memSize = \”272\”/boot\/memSize = \”800\”/g’ /etc/vmware/esx.conf.old >> /etc/vmware/esx.conf
mv -f /boot/grub/grub.conf /tmp/grub.conf.bak
/bin/sed -e ’s/uppermem 277504/uppermem 818176/g’ -e ’s/mem=272M/mem=800M/g’ /tmp/grub.conf.bak >> /boot/grub/grub.conf

# DNS and Gateway
mv /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf.old
echo “search yellow-bricks.local” >> /etc/resolv.conf
echo “nameserver 10.40.1.251″ >> /etc/resolv.conf
echo “nameserver 10.40.1.252″ >> /etc/resolv.conf
echo “GATEWAY=10.40.254.1″ >> /etc/sysconfig/network

# set uselunreset enabled and devicereset disabled
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /Disk/UseDeviceReset
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /Disk/UseLunReset

# set queuedepth for qlogic adapter
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-module -s ql2xmaxqdepth=64 qla2300_707_vmw
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-boot -b

# add extrra nic to vSwitch0
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic3 vSwitch0

# Create a vswitch with 2 nics, a vlan and ip-hash
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch1
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -A “Server vlan 10″ vSwitch1
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 vSwitch1
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic4 vSwitch1

# Create a vswitch with 2 nics, a vlan
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch2
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -A VMotion vSwitch2
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic2 vSwitch2
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic5 vSwitch2
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vmknic -a VMotion -i 10.40.199.201 -n 255.255.255.0
sleep 3

# refresh nic settings with vimsh
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/refresh”
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “internalsvc/refresh_network”

# Active and standby setup and maxActive from 1 to 2
mv /etc/vmware/esx.conf /tmp/esx.conf.bak
/bin/sed -e ’s/net\/vswitch\/child\[0001\]\/teamPolicy\/maxActive = \”1\”/net\/vswitch\/child\[0001\]\/teamPolicy\/maxActive = \”2\”/g’ /tmp/esx.conf.bak >> /etc/vmware/esx.conf

/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/portgroup_set –nicorderpolicy-active=vmnic2 –nicorderpolicy-standby=vmnic5 vSwitch2 VMotion”
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/portgroup_set –nicorderpolicy-active=vmnic0 –nicorderpolicy-standby=vmnic3 vSwitch0 ‘Service Console’”

/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/refresh”
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “internalsvc/refresh_network”

# Activiate IP Hash and 2 actieve nics on vSwitch1
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic1 vSwitch1
sleep 3
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic4 vSwitch1
sleep 3
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 vSwitch1
sleep 3
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic4 vSwitch1
sleep 5
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/refresh”
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “internalsvc/refresh_network”

/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/vswitch_setpolicy –nicteaming-policy=loadbalance_ip vSwitch1″

# VLAN ID portgroups
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -p “Server vlan 10″ -v 10 vSwitch1
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -p VMotion -v 199 vSwitch2
sleep 5
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/net/refresh”
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “internalsvc/refresh_network”

# fill up Host file
rm -rf /etc/hosts
echo “# Do not remove the following line, or various programs” >> echo /etc/hosts
echo “# that require network functionality will fail.” >> /etc/hosts
echo “127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost” >> /etc/hosts
echo “10.40.254.201 esx01.yellow-bricks-nhn.local esx01″ >> /etc/hosts
echo “10.40.254.202 esx02.yellow-bricks.local esx02″ >> /etc/hosts
echo “10.40.254.200 vc01.yellow-bricks.local vc01″ >> /etc/hosts

# enable and configure ntp
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-firewall –enableService ntpClient
mv /etc/ntp.conf /etc/ntp.conf.old
mv /etc/ntp/step-tickers /etc/ntp/step-tickers.old
echo “restrict 127.0.0.1″ >> /etc/ntp.conf
echo “restrict default kod nomodify notrap” >> /etc/ntp.conf
echo “server 10.40.254.11″ >> /etc/ntp.conf
echo “server 10.40.254.12″ >> /etc/ntp.conf
echo “driftfile /var/lib/ntp/drift” >> /etc/ntp.conf
echo “10.40.254.11″ >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
echo “10.40.254.12″ >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/sbin/chkconfig –level 345 ntpd on
/etc/init.d/ntpd restart
/sbin/hwclock –systohc

# Enable VMotion
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set vmk0″

/etc/init.d/mgmt-vmware restart

EOF1

/bin/chmod 755 /tmp/esxcfg.sh
cp /etc/rc.d/rc.local /etc/rc.d/rc.local.bak
cat >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local <
cd /tmp
/tmp/esxcfg.sh
mv -f /etc/rc.d/rc.local.bak /etc/rc.d/rc.local
EOF