Using vSphere 5 auto-deploy in your home lab

I was just playing around with auto-deploy and I figured I would quickly scribble down the steps required to configure it. The documentation is okay but it often refers me back and forth in the document which makes it difficult to read at times. Here is what I did to get it working. I was in doubt if I would add screenshots, but that would make this article fairly lengthy and I am sure that most of you wouldn’t need it any way. I have my complete lab virtualized at home, so this whole setup is running in VMware Workstation. Download vCenter Server 5 Download the ESXi 5.0 Offline Bundle Install vCenter Server 5 Install Powershell 2.0 (installed it on the vCenter Server) Install PowerCLI (installed it on the vCenter Server) Install Auto-deploy (also located on vCenter iso) (installed it on the vCenter Server) Install TFTP Server (I used Solarwinds) (installed it on the vCenter Server) Click “File” and “Configure” and start the TFTP Server A folder C:\TFTP-Root will be created Make sure if you are running this on Windows that the Firewall is open for TFTP -> The rest is on the blog : http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2011/08/25/using-vsphere-5-auto-deploy-in-your-home-lab/