VSphere 8.0 Install & Configuration
Prerequisites¶
- VMware vSphere 8.0 ISO
- Sign-up on VMWare's site here to download the evaluation copy
- USB Drive
- Hardware that meets VMware's Compatibility Guide
- VMware's PowerCLI PowerShell module
- VMware Docs for installation
GUI Installation¶
Welcome To the VMware ESXi 8.0.1 Installation¶
Press Enter at this screen to continue
End User License Agreement (EULA)¶
Press F11 to Accept and Continue to progress
Select a Disk to Install or Upgrade¶
Choose which disk you want to install the OS. Here I chose the 278GB drive as the 1.09TB drive drive is going to be used for the datastore.
Write down the last 4 numbers of the other drive it will be used later.
Please select a keyboard layout¶
Press Enter to select the default layout, or you can select a new layout by using the up and down arrows.
Enter a root password¶
Create the password for the root account that you will use to manage the hypervisor. ESXi Password Requirements.
Error(s)/Warning(s) Found During System Scan¶
If there are any issues found, they will be listed here. As you can see my 2 Intel EXeon E5-2620 v4's may no longer be supported by VMware in future releases, and that my BIOS is still currently in Legacy Mode, which I will be changing since I was not aware!
Press Enter to continue.
Confirm Install¶
Press F11 to confirm the installation.
Installation Complete¶
After the installation has completed, remove the installation media. Then press Enter to reboot.
After First Reboot¶
After the first reboot has happened, you'll see the following screen. I have DHCP configured so the host was given 10.0.1.107. We'll be using this in the coming sections.
Configuring with PowerCLI¶
We're going to configure;
- Static IPv4
- Disable IPv6
- Hostname
- DNS
- Datastore
Connecting to the host¶
# Provide the credentials to the root account
$ESXiRoot = Get-Credential root
# Command to connect to the host
Connect-VIServer -Server '10.0.1.107' -Credential $ESXiRoot
After a successful connection you'll see the output below.
Name Port User
---- ---- ----
10.0.1.107 443 root
Configuring a Static IP¶
Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter |
Select-Object -Property Name,IP,SubnetMask
Name IP SubnetMask
---- -- ----------
vmnic0
vmnic1
vmnic2
vmnic3
vmk0 10.0.1.107 255.255.255.0
Take note of the name of the interface you're going to be changing, which for me it's vmk0.
# Select only the adapter you're altering
$vmk0 = Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter |
Where-Object {$_.Name -eq "vmk0"}
# Pipe the network adapter to the set command
$vmk0 |
Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter -IP '10.0.1.52' -SubnetMask '255.255.255.0' -IPv6Enabled $false
Perform operation?
Performing operation 'Configuring VM host network adapter.' on network adapter with IP '10.0.1.107' and device name 'vmk0'.
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"):
Enter to continue the operation.
WARNING: The underlying connection was closed: A connection that was expected to be kept alive was closed by the server.
Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter : 2023-11-12 10:04:23 PM Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
At line:1 char:9
+ $vmk0 | Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter -IP '10.0.1.52' -SubnetMask '255.255 ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter], VimException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Core_BaseCmdlet_UnknownError,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.Host.SetVMHostNetworkAdapter
You have to disconnect your session with the only IP address 10.0.1.107.
Disconnect-VIServer -Server 10.0.1.107 -Force
Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Performing the operation "Disconnect VIServer" on target "User: root, Server: 10.0.1.107, Port: 443".
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"):
Enter to disconnect.
Reconnect the PowerShell session to the ESXi host with the new IP 10.0.1.52.
# Provide the credentials to the root account
$ESXiRoot = Get-Credential root
# Command to connect to the host
Connect-VIServer -Server '10.0.1.52' -Credential $ESXiRoot
P to accept the certificate again.
Setting HostName, DNS, and disabling IPv6¶
Since we only have a basic network setup, we don't need to specify a VMHostNetwork.
Get-VMHostNetwork |
Set-VMHostNetwork -HostName TTE-ESX-02 -DnsFromDhcp $false -DnsAddress 10.0.1.2,10.0.1.3 -IPv6Enabled $false
WARNING: Disabling IPv6 will take effect after host reboot.
HostName DomainName DnsFro ConsoleGateway ConsoleGatewayD DnsAddress
mDhcp evice
-------- ---------- ------ -------------- --------------- ----------
TTE-ESX-02 AD.Timewe... False {10.0.1.2, 10.0.1.3}
Creating a New Datastore¶
Get the device path on which you want to create the new datastore.
# Save to variable for later
$VMHostDisk = Get-VMHostDisk
# Output
$VMHostDisk
DeviceName TotalSectors
---------- ------------
/vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6d0946600a41e9002ca66ae9f0e32e0b 2339373056
/vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6d0946600a41e9002ca66c7708a11de7 584843264
New-Datastore -Vmfs -Name 'data' -Path $VMHostDisk[0].ScsiLun.CanonicalName -VMHost '10.0.1.52' -FileSystemVersion 6
Name FreeSpaceGB CapacityGB
---- ----------- ----------
data 1,113.827 1,115.250
Restarting the ESXi Host¶
Get-VMHost |
Restart-VMHost -Force
Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Performing the operation "Restart VM host.: Force: True" on target "10.0.1.52".
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"):
Enter to restart the host.
VMWare's PowerCLI documentation can be found here.
Next Post I'll be copying ISO's and provisioning VMs for the home-lab.
Thank you for reading!