Modifying the Installation Media

Preparation

Before you can modify the installation media, you must download the appropriate offline bundles. You will need an Offline Bundle of your chosen ESXi version and offline bundles of any drivers you wish to install.

Download the ESXi Offline Bundle

1. Be sure that you have registered for your desired ESXi version before attempting to download the Offline Bundle.
2. Navigate to Download VMware vSphere - VMware Customer Connect.
3. Select your ESXi version and click the Go To Downloads.
4. Next to the Offline Bundle, click Download Now.

Download Official ESXi Drivers

1. Navigate to VMware Compatibility Guide - I/O Device Search.
2. Search for the drivers that needs to be imported.
3. Find the driver in the results list and click the corresponding ESXi version needed.
4. The driver download link will appear in the footnotes if it needs to be manually imported. If available, click the Expand (plus) icon next to the ESXi Release to display the driver download link.
   

   

Download Third-party Drivers

There are many various third-party ESXi driver sites, but the most popular is hosted by V-Front.de Follow the directions below to download drivers from the V-Front Online Depot.

1. Navigate to V-Front VIBSDepot Wiki.
2. In the upper right-hand corner, search for a specific driver, driver vendor or hardware type.
3. Find and click the driver page that corresponds to your needs.
   1. If the package you selected has been depreciated, look for the supported packages in the description.
4. Under the Direct Download Links, download the Offline Bundle.

Creating a Custom Image

1. Create a directory on the C root called esxi. Example: C:\esxi
2. Copy the ESXi Offline Installer and any ESXi Offline Driver Packages to the C:\esxi directory.
3. Open PowerShell.
4. Enter the esxi directory by typing cd C:\esxi then press Enter.
5. Add the packages to the local software depot.
   1. Type Add-EsxSoftwareDepot C:\esxi\%FILENAME% and press Enter.
      1. Replace %FILENAME% with the filename of the Offline Installer Package. Ex: Add-EsxSoftwareDepot C:\esxi\ESXi670-201912001.zip
      2. Run this command on each offline installer in the esxi directory.
         

         

6.  Run the following command to get the available ESXi Image Profiles
   Get-EsxImageProfile | Format-Table Name -AutoSize
   

   

7. Create a new ESXi Image Profile by running the following command:
   New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile %PROFILE% -Name %NAME% -Vendor %VENDOR%
   1. Replace %PROFILE% with an ESXi profile from the command above.
   2. Replace %NAME% with the name of your new custom profile. This can be anything you want.
   3. Replace %VENDOR% with the name of a vendor. You can enter anything here, but for demonstration I used Lenovo.
      

       

      

8. Set the Image Profile as active using the following command:
   Set-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile %NAME% -AcceptanceLevel CommunitySupported
   1. Replace %NAME% with the custom profile name you set in the last command.
      

      

9. Search the local software depot for package names using this command:
   Get-EsxSoftwarePackage | Where {$_.Vendor -eq "%VENDOR%"}
   
   1. Replace %VENDOR% with the vendor of the driver that needs to be imported.
      

      

10. Add the driver to your custom ESXi Profile using the following command:
    Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile %PROFILE% -SoftwarePackage %PACKAGE%
    
    1. Replace %PROFILE% with the name of your new custom profile.
    2. Replace %PACKAGE% with the name of a package you want to import from the command above.
       

       

11. When you are finished adding driver packages to the profile, export an ISO image by running the following command:
    Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile %PROFILE% -ExportToIso -filepath C:\esxibuild\%NAME%
    1. Replace %PROFILE% with the name of the custom profile.
    2. Replace %NAME% with a name for the ISO image. Make sure to include .ISO at the end of the filename.