Release updates and a warning

ESXi 5.5 was released on 9/22/2013 as noted at https://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esx-vcenter-server-55-release-notes.html [1] . Two big changes in this release, versus vs 5.1, is the removal of the ram limitation http://www.vladan.fr/esxi-5-5-free-version-details/ [2]. This is good news for those of who use the free version and need more ram! On a side note it does require a minimum of 4 GiB of memory

One word of warning before you replace version 5.1. According to a discussion at this forum https://communities.vmware.com/thread/457843?start=15&tstart=0

[3] 5.5 adds a web interface, it still supports vSphere client, but for the free version if the VM is a version 10 VM you can't edit its settings after its creation. You can edit a version 10 VM using Workstation 10 connected to your ESX box (that is my plan), or you can keep all your VMs as version 9 VMs.

Installing ESXi 5.5

First you need to download ESXi 5.5 from the VMware web site. Go to http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor [4] . Then from here click on Download Now

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/overview.html [1]. Then from here click on download.

And then log in.

After you login it should forward you to the

“License and Download” page

Now right down this license number (this is for the free version of the esxi server and vSphere client).

Click on “Manual Download” and download the ESX 5.5 installable (CD ISO)

Now burn the iso to a CD.

On Win-7 You can right click on the ISO and select “Burn disc image”

Then click burn

Now put the install disc in the machine you want to install ESXi 5.5 on. Reboot the machine and watch the ESXi installer start.

Select ESXi-5.5.0-…. Standard installer and click enter.

The ESXi 5.5 installer will start.

Another installer screen

After it is done you will see this screen

Click Enter to continue

Click on F11 to accept license

Scanning…

Select which drive to install on and click enter.

Select US Default keyboard and click enter

Enter a password, confirm it and click enter

If your hardware does not support on-chip virtualization you may get this screen. You have a few options here, if your CPU does have VT technology you need to reboot, get into the BIOS settings and turn on the VT-technology. Or if it does not you could get a new chip that does have VT-technology and install it or Just click Enter to continue, this usually limits you to 32-bit virtual machines. Plus they will run a little bit faster if you have vt magic on your chip

Confirm install and click F11

Now wait for the install.

Success, click Enter to reboot

After a reboot you will see this.

Click on F2 to customize

Enter your password and click OK

Select Configure Management Network and click enter

Here you can set up your specific network information

Such as setting up a static IP. I will not go into what you should do here as each person has their own needs, as for my simple system I just set the static IP.

Checkbox the "Set Static IP address" by pressing the space bar. Set the IP address to what you want it to be. In my case I set it to 192.168.0.95 Then press enter.

Once you are done with this you need to click esc

Which brings up this screen

Press Y

Press Esc to get back to the main screen

From here you can see the IP address has been updated.

To make sure its all working correctly reboot. To do this click F12

Enter your username/password and click OK

Click F11

Wait for the restart to take place.

After a reboot it all looks good.

VSphere Client Installation

The server displays a web page to download the VShpere client from

Open up a web browser on a system it will immediately forward you to https version of the site.

From Google Chrome you will see this

Click “Proceed Anyway”

You will see this page click on Download vSphere Client.

You will see some notes about The vSphere web client (which as far as I can tell cannot be used in the free version of ESXi 5.5… you need a paid for vCenter to use it)

Now install the VSphere Client you just downloaded