Today not all servers are equipped with a CD-ROM drive and the installation of VMware ESXi 6.5 can be easily performed using a USB stick.
The use of the USB drive makes the installation process faster compared to the classic CD-ROM drive.
Prerequisites
To create the USB installer you need the following:
- A USB stick with at least 4 GB capacity
- VMware ESXi 6.5 ISO file
- A tool like UNetbootin to make the USB stick bootable
Create a bootable USB stick
From VMware website download the VMware ESXi 6.5 ISO file.
Run the UNetbootin tool and select Diskimage option. Click on browse button (...) to select the image to use.
Click OK to create the bootable USB Key.
ESXi files are being copied to the USB drive.
When the process has completed, click Exit to close UNetbootin.
Install ESXi 6.5 from USB stick
Set the correct boot sequence in the server’s BIOS settings, insert the just created USB stick and power on the server. The installation process begins loading the ESXi installer.
When the installation completes successfully, the ESXi console is displayed.
The use of a USB stick allows the administrators to save plenty of time for the hypervisor installation because it's faster compared to CD-ROM drives.
