Today's post is about How-to Install Install VMware ESXi on USB memory stick by using Unetbootin Freeware in order to obtain bootable ESXi memory stick. It's been some time since I pointed out an easy way of Installing and configuring VMware Free Hypervizor ESXi 5 on to memory stick. It's an easy to way to do by using VMware Workstation or Free VMware Player. You can read my post about it here – How-to create ESXi 5 USB stick by using Vmware Player.
Free software called Unetbootin can create bootable USB which is then used in case your system does not have CD/DVD drive, to install ESXi hypervisor. This free application can create the bootable ESXi 5 hypervizor from any system – Linux, Windows or Mac OS X…
Here are the steps to create a bootable ESXi 5 USB stick:
01. Download Free Unebootin software (use the version you need for you system… Linux, Windows, MAC OS X, etc…)
02. Format the USB stick with FAT32 and make sure it takes a drive letter (E: for example)
03. Use Unetbootin to select your VMware ESXi 5 iso file – VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.0.0.update01-623860.x86_64.iso and with the dropdown arrow choose the correct USB drive from your system.
04. Now, that's all. You are done. Click OK to start the installation process. After, don't forget to change the boot sequence in your BIOS to boot from USB.
Note that your hardware CPU must support the Intel® VT-x/AMD-V™ for instruction set virtualization, but all modern CPU does.
Enjoy… -:)
Florian Heigl says
Thanks, your howto was just the one I looked for 🙂
Isaias says
I want to setup a personal server a Hypervisor to be exactly, I want to use a USB to install the ESXi on it and use my HDD for the VMs My question is if for some unexpected reason the USB get damaged can I use the HDD with a New USB with a fresh install of the ESXi ?
engineerinmaking says
I know this is a late reply. But yes, you can.
Phoenix says
This is a great article, I needed to rebuild my poweredge and I forgot what I did, these instructions got me back on point. Word to the wise: Write your SCOPE and KEEP it!
dr cunt says
well it appears that the esxi iso image is not bootable, wtf is going on