Create a ESXi 5.1 ISO file with additional network drivers

As vSphere 5.1 is just released, you can run into the problem that the default ISO from VMware doesn’t contain the right drivers for you hardware. During installation you don’t have the option to import a driver. And if no network card is detected, installation won’t continue. In order to fix this problem you have to create your own ISO file. This can be done with PowerCLI.

1. Download the VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-xxxxxx-depot.zip (where xxxxxx is the build number) from the VMware website and your driver file (something like Vendor_drivername-version-offline_bundle-xxxxxxxx where xxxxxx is the buildnumber. In my case the file name is: BCM-NetXtremeII-1.0-offline_bundle-553511). Place these files in a directory on your harddrive. I placed the ESXi5.1 depot  in c:\vmware\esxi51 and the driver file in c:\vmware\bcm-driver.
2. Start PowerCLI and cd to c:\vmware.
3. Use the Add-ESXSoftwareDepotcommandlet to add both the ESXi offline bundle and async offline bundle as depots. For example:
   
   Add-ESXSoftwareDepot ./bcm-driver\BCM-NetXtremeII-1.0-offline_bundle-553511.zip
   
   Output will be something like:
   
   Depot Url
   ———
   zip:C:\vmware\bcm-driver\BCM-NetXtremeII-1.0-offline_bundle-553511.zip?index…
4. Add the vSphere 5.1 software depot file with the command:
   
   Add-ESXSoftwareDepot ./esxi51/VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-depot.zipOutput will be something like:
   
   Depot Url
   ———
   zip:C:\vmware\esxi51\VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-depot.zip?index.xml
5. Verify the available software packages with the command: Get-EsxSoftwarePackage
6. Next step is to clone a existing image profile.With the command Get-EsxImageProfile you’ll get a list of the available profiles.
   Output will be something like:
   
   Name                       Vendor Last Modified Acceptance
   ————————– —— ————- —————
   ESXi-5.1.0-799733-standard VMware mm/dd/yyyy    PartnerSupported
   ESXi-5.1.0-799733-no-tools VMware mm/dd/yyyy    PartnerSupported

   Where going to clone the ESXi-5.0.0-456551-no-tools profile to a new profile called ESXi-WilmsenIT. This can be done with the command New-EsxImageProfile. For example:
   
   New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile “ESXi-5.1.0-799733-no-tools” -name “ESXi-WilmsenIT” -Vendor “WilmsenIT”Output will be something like:
   
   Name             Vendor      Last Modified   Acceptance Level
   —-             ——      ————-   —————-
   ESXi-WilmsenIT   WilmsenIT   2-8-2012 3:0… PartnerSupported

1. Now whe’re going to add the driver from step 4.Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile “ESXi-WilmsenIT“ -SoftwarePackage “net-bnx2x”The output appears similar to:Name            Vendor    Last Modified Acceptance Level
   ————— ——    ————- —————-
   ESXi-WilmsenIT  WilmsenIT today         PartnerSupported

1. Last step is to export the imageprofile to a ISO file which you can burn. Use the command Export-EsxImageProfile for this:Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile “ESXi-WilmsenIT” -ExportToISO -filepath C:\ESXi-WilmsenIT.iso

About Michael Wilmsen

Michael Wilmsen is a self employed VMware consultant and founder of the virtualisation website virtual-hike.com. Michael has more than 15 years of experience in IT and has the following certifications CNI, VCAP-DCD, VCAP-DCA and vExpert.