Installing ESXi using uEFI PXE

[QuikJean]

Hi

I am wondering if someone has already tried (and even succeeded) to install an ESXi 5.x server using a boot PXE in UEFI mode (not BIOS/legacy mode).

I have recently built a small linux box that can deploy RHEL using UEFI mode and I am trying to do the same with ESXi.

But unfortunately all my tests have failed for now with ESXi.

If anybody has succeeded, thanks for his help on how he achieved it.

[OscarDavey]

Yes and follow this guide to help you up setting it , and if you need more help let me know .

vSphere Documentation Center

Best regards

Yours, Oscar

[QuikJean]

Thanks for your quick answer

I may not be clear enough. Your link sends me to the page "Install ESXi Interactively"

Actually what I am trying to achieve is to run a complete scripted install of ESXi the same way that is described here :

vSphere Documentation Center

But this procedure describes how to run the install using a BIOS (or legacy) PXE boot (which works fine btw).

Now with my UEFI systems I would like to run the install using UEFI PXE boot

[Ramesh Dhanaraj]

When you install ESXi on a host machine in UEFI mode, the machine might fail to boot. Problem When you reboot after installing ESXi on a host machine in UEFI mode, the reboot might fail. This problem is accompanied by an error message similar to Unexpected network error. No boot device available. Cause The host system fails to recognize the disk that ESXi is installed on as the boot disk. Solution 1 While the error message is displayed on screen, press F11 to display boot options. 2 Select an option similar to Add boot option. The wording of the option might vary, depending on your system. 3 Select the file \EFI\BOOT\BOOTx64.EFI on the disk that you installed ESXi on. 4 Change the boot order so that the host boots from the option that you added.

[nkrishnan]

looks PXE-UEFI is not support, http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/eslvmwre/VS_5/Docs/ESXiDG/ESXi5DG.pdf  refer the page no 19

[QuikJean]

Thanks for your answer

It looks like I don't have permission to download this file without a code...

but it saves my time trying to make it work whereas it cannot

[DCKUL]

Any news on this?

Is there already a way to do a scripted/automated esxi install over pxe on Uefi hardware?

[Matt_B1]

Any update on this?  We now have HP Gen9 (Generation 9) blades and I would love to get my PXE build setup working for these UEFI based blades.  I found this example but it doesn't have an ESXi entry as an example.

HP Blogs - Learn how to modify a Linux based PXE server to su... - The HP Blog Hub

[Hiney]

UEFI PXE boot is possible in ESXi 6.0 | virtuallyGhetto

this seems to indicate it is now uefi compliant. I will have a look today.

[Hiney]

at it's simplest, copy contents of CD to the root of the tftp server  root of

copy efi/boot/bootx64.efi to the root of the tftp server dir, making a reference to it in dhcpd.conf

copy efi/boot/boot.cfg to the root of the  tftp server dir.

and it will boot. It will be the only thing that boots.

i'd like to integrate this into the normal grub.cfg. Time will tell.

[prahate]

Hi,

You can follow the procedure as given in this document

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vcenter/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-60-pxe-boot-esxi.pdf

Thanks.