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ESXi 3.5 Update 2 on a USB memory key

Duncan Epping · Jul 29, 2008 ·

For those like me who would like to check ESXi 3.5 update 2 but don’t want to install on a local harddisk. Here’s a good pdf about how to install it on a USB memory key. It’s fairly easy and I just booted my IBM X61 laptop with ESXi.


In short:

  1. First get the following tools: 7-Zip(Free), WinImage(Demo)
  2. Download the ESXi ISO
  3. Open the ISO with 7-Zip
  4. Extract “install.tgz”
  5. Open “install.tgz” with 7-Zip
  6. Click on “install.tar”
  7. Browse to “usr\lib\vmware\installer\”
  8. Open “VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update_2-103909.i386.dd.bz2”
  9. Extract “VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update_2-103909.i386.dd”
  10. Open WinImage and go to Disk, click on “Restore Virtual Harddisk Image on physical drive”
  11. Select a physical drive
  12. Select “VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update_2-103909.i386.dd”
  13. And click “yes” to write the DD image to the USB Disk

Done! For a more detailed procedure check the pdf above, it also includes screenshots!

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Server 3.5, esxi, Howto, u2

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Comments

  1. Bert Bouwhuis says

    29 July, 2008 at 21:28

    That’s an interesting option, but the PDF link is either wrong or not available at the moment…

  2. Gabriel Maciel says

    29 July, 2008 at 21:34

    The following link “http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/Knorrhane/2008/01/21/installing-esx-3i-on-usb-stick” has the setup details as well.

  3. Duncan Epping says

    29 July, 2008 at 22:11

    the website is down Bert, the link should be correct cause I double checked it this afternoon.

  4. Anders Gregersen says

    10 August, 2008 at 19:13

    Did ESXi see your local storage and nic on the X61? If so what partno. does the X61 you use have? I’m looking for a laptop that works with ESXi 3.5u2 without any nfs or other storage attached

  5. Martti Kuparinen says

    25 August, 2008 at 12:16

    Here’s how I did it using Ubuntu (as I don’t have Windows on my home PC):

    http://www.iki.fi/kuparine/comp/vmware/esxionusb.html

  6. Brian says

    25 August, 2008 at 21:30

    For those looking for a WinImage alternative I successfully used “DD for Windows” found here: http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

    I used:

    dd bs=1M if=VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0-67921.i386.dd of=\\?\Device\Harddisk1\Partition0 –progress

    I found the path to my removable drive by using the “dd –list” command and then looking in the “NT Block Device Objects” list for the first removable media where the size was the same as my USB flash drive.

    Not as sleek as WinImage, but since this is GPL and the only time I expect to ever write a DD image file to a drive, it is much easier than registering yet another piece of software.

  7. Remon Lam says

    26 August, 2008 at 13:27

    I have moved the guide to my new site http://www.vminfo.nl/?p=29
    sorry for the inconvenience.

    I have updated the guide for ESX version 3.5 u2.

    Best regards,
    Remon Lam – VMinfo.nl

  8. Remon Lam says

    27 August, 2008 at 00:39

    I’ve seen that you’re using an “old” link to the guide.
    I have moved it to my new site that is dedicated to virtualization.

    On the site below you can find the new version of the guide, I have tested it with the latest version of ESX 3i Update 2 and it’s still working fine.

    Here’s the direct link to the guide: http://www.vminfo.nl/?p=29

    Sorry for the inconvenience.

    Best regards,
    Remon Lam – VMinfo.nl

  9. PSL says

    30 August, 2008 at 14:52

    I cannot boot the USB flashdisk (2GB), I get error “Panic: Cannot get disk parameters.”
    Motherboard is miniATX Gigabyte with G33 chipset (GA-G33M-DSR2. Looks as SYSLINUX problem.

  10. Marcello says

    7 September, 2008 at 03:22

    I got the same error “Panic: Cannot get disk parameters” using GA-EP35-DS3P

  11. Chris Staudt says

    15 October, 2008 at 17:34

    All I get is:
    Panic: Cannot get disk parameters.
    Did anybody solve this?

    Best regards,
    chris

  12. Microkid says

    11 December, 2008 at 19:40

    Booting ESXi from a Gigabyte mobo seems to be problematic, I read this at more forums. Seems the Gigabyte mobo doesn’t emulate the USB stick as an HDD or so.

  13. jrobgood says

    12 December, 2008 at 02:37

    I’ve seen about 500 iterations of the “how to boot ESXi from USB”, but is there a solution for booting ESXi but defining an internal SATA as the installation target?

    I wonder if there’s a way to edit the boot sector of the DDed USB stick and trick the installer into thinking it’s a CD-ROM device and thus seek an appropriate target on the host?

  14. smino says

    12 December, 2008 at 07:00

    Wow, that boots fast! It worked for me.
    Know I need to figure out how to create images in it. I am guessing I need the VM Infrastructure client right?

  15. smino says

    12 December, 2008 at 07:00

    Will ESXi run on any hardware?

  16. Duncan says

    12 December, 2008 at 13:37

    No it will not, check this website about whitebox info: http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm

  17. smino says

    17 December, 2008 at 16:53

    How do you configure the static ip and netowrk device to come up at every boot properly configured. I find I have to set the IP and network card every boot.

    Also, does it support networking teaming and 9000 MTU?

  18. Blackz06vette says

    14 January, 2009 at 04:46

    Had a minor issue with Winimage (failed to write to usb stick with Vista Ultimate 64 bit), but that worked fine (same USB stick) under XP pro 32 bit.

    Running nicely on an EVGA 680i motherboard, sees the NIC’s.

  19. MikeinBrighton says

    23 January, 2009 at 16:40

    Re the Gigabyte USB boot problems. I was having the same on a GA-MA790GP-DS4H.

    What solved it for me was image backup via Acronis Trueimage Workstation, then writing back to USB. Worked like a charm!

  20. Tor Håkon Haugen says

    22 February, 2009 at 13:44

    Thanks for a great guide.

    I used this in combination with some other information on the Internet to add support for more hardware.

    My own guide, pluss references to all the other web sites I used, can be found here: http://blog.torh.net/2009/02/22/running-vmware-esxi-hypervisor/

  21. Wally Simmonds says

    28 February, 2009 at 02:13

    @MikeinBrighton

    How’d you get that to work? Trying to do a image backup of the USB key, but I get errors.

  22. Stefaan says

    12 March, 2009 at 14:25

    If you use Windows Vista then winimage will not work. try using diskimg (http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=12 )

    or other disk image tool.

  23. Eric says

    20 March, 2009 at 21:17

    I followed these instructions as well as the ones at http://vmetc.com/2008/02/05/create-your-own-bootable-esx-3i-usb-stick/ for 3.5i U3 and booting fails with:

    PANIC: Error while reading file: -3, vmkernel.gz

    Has anyone made this work with U3?

  24. trying_esxi says

    27 March, 2009 at 20:57

    Yes. Worked for me on U3.

    General question – is the general idea of installing on USB memory drive for people to just try it, then install ‘for real’ on a drive or something? I ask because I know flash drives have limited read/write life cycles so how long will it run on a USB key before that’s a concern? I guess if it’s more than a few years then who cares, right?

    I used a 2.0 GB stick BTW…

    Thanks.

  25. Duncan Epping says

    27 March, 2009 at 21:47

    I use it primarily for testing. I know people who use it at home for running ESXi on PC’s without a supported hdd controller.

  26. Ewan says

    31 March, 2009 at 11:46

    I use it for testing on a home server, but a few of the blades out there come with what is essentially a USB stick inside the server with ESXi pre-installed.

    There’s very little disk writing going on (just config files really), so it should in theory be incredibly reliable.

    Ewan

  27. sabnext says

    7 April, 2009 at 08:02

    I’ve made One-Size-Fits-All USB Multi-boot Flash Drive
    using nice instruction http://realwindfall.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-size-fits-all-usb-multi-boot-flash.html.

    Now I have:

    – Mini-Xp from Hiren’s boot CD
    – Knoppix
    – Puppy Linux
    – DOS (Yes!)

    on my OCZ Raly 2 USB flash drive (32 Gb).

  28. jpmoney says

    16 May, 2009 at 13:01

    “quote” 19. MikeinBrighton said,
    January 23rd, 2009 at 16:40

    Re the Gigabyte USB boot problems. I was having the same on a GA-MA790GP-DS4H.

    What solved it for me was image backup via Acronis Trueimage Workstation, then writing back to USB. Worked like a charm!
    “quote”

    image back-up from what? From the USB itself or a working SATA with ESXi already on it?
    I get the same error Gigabyte P35DS3-R

  29. jpmoney says

    16 May, 2009 at 13:03

    I guess all people with Gigabye mobo’s are getting this error: Panic: Cannot get disk parameters.

  30. Lorenz says

    17 May, 2009 at 11:03

    image back-up from what? From the USB itself or a working SATA with ESXi already on it?

    has anyone got an answer to this question
    I am also getting panic message when I try and boot from USB key created following above instructions.

  31. nona says

    27 October, 2009 at 18:29

    ive booted the usb after i did the instruction on doomdog.knows.it

  32. Georgi says

    15 January, 2010 at 11:31

    Just to add that WinImage seems to work fine under Windows Vista if you run it as administrator. Then you can use it to “Restore Virtual Harddisk Image on physical drive” and select your USB stick from the list.

  33. amassin akholo says

    29 January, 2010 at 12:05

    hi
    I have ESXi 3.5 Update 5 on a USB memory key
    when I boot my machine I have this

    PANIC: Failed to find USB boot partition

    think’s

  34. thomas sale sale says

    16 November, 2010 at 10:52

    made a mistake earlier, thought my post were deleted, was wrong , sorry.

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About the author

Duncan Epping is a Chief Technologist in the Office of CTO of the Cloud Platform BU at VMware. He is a VCDX (# 007), the author of the "vSAN Deep Dive", the “vSphere Clustering Technical Deep Dive” series, and the host of the "Unexplored Territory" podcast.

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