vSphere ESXi on a USB memory stick

The procedure has not changed much since ESXi 3.5 but I thought I would document it anyway. A lot of people seem to end up here by googling “USB ESXi vSphere”.

Here you go:

1. First get the following tools: 7-Zip(Free), WinImage(Demo)
2. Download the ESXi ISO (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.0.0-164009.x86_64.iso)
3. Open the ISO with 7-Zip
4. Open “image.tgz” with 7-Zip
5. Browse to “\image.tgz.temptar\usr\lib\vmware\installer\VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd.bz2\”
6. Extract “VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd”
7. Open WinImage and go to Disk, click on “Restore Virtual Harddisk Image on physical drive”
8. Select a physical drive
9. Select “VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd”
10. And click “yes” to write the DD image to the USB Disk

Done! Now, let’s see if I can get my old Dell GX620 running with vSphere ESXi

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/06/09/vsphere-esxi-on-a-usb-memory-stick/