Server specs

It can be a pain to get common hardware working with ESXi especially network cards….

Motherboard	Gigabyte Z390 UD LGA 1151	https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherboard/Z390-UD-rev-10#kf
CPU	Core i3-8100 Coffee Lake	https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/126688/intel-core-i3-8100-processor-6m-cache-3-60-ghz.html
Memory	32 GB 2x16GB DDR4-3200 Corsair	https://www.microcenter.com/product/616299/corsair-vengeance-lpx-32gb-(2-x-16gb)-ddr4-3200-pc4-25600-cl16-dual-channel-desktop-memory-kit-cmk32gx4m2e3200---black
Ethernet Card	Gigabit Pro/1000 CT PCI-e Desktop Adapter EXPI9301CT	https://www.amazon.com/Intel-EXPI9301CT-Gigabit-Desktop-Adapter/dp/B001CXWWBE/

Download software and Key

Head over to

https://www.vmware.com/try-vmware.html [1]

Scroll down and click on VMware vSphere Hypervisor (64 bit)

Click Register

Fill out the form and checkbox the agree and click on Sign up.

After you do that….

You should see a license key and a button to manually download it.

Click the download button and record the license key somewhere.

Create Bootable USB

Create a bootable USB drive using Rufus.
You need a USB stick that you can wipe out.
Head over to https://rufus.ie/ [2] and download rufus.

Run Rufus.

Select the USB drive to become the boot drive

Click Select then find the ESI 7.0 ISO you just downloaded

Make sure MBR and BIOS or UEFI are selected then click Start.

Last warning!!

Click OK
And that is it.

Installation

Plug the USB into the machine and start it up!

Press enter to install ESXi 7.0

Press F11

Select a disk and press enter

Press enter to confirm you want to wipe out the disk

Choose keyboard and press enter

Enter a password and press enter

Press F11 to begin install process

Watch the progress bar

After it completes press Enter to reboot

After it reboots remove the usb drive.

Post installation setup

You should see something like this once the server reboots.

I like to change the IP address and make it static so I am going to do that now.

Press F2 and enter password

Select Configuration Management Network and press enter

Go to IPv4 Configuration and press enter

Set it to static and enter new IPv4 Address you want and press enter

Press Y

Press Esc a few times to get back to the main screen.

Now you should see the new IPv4 Address show up.

Login and register

Using your IP open up the web interface

Ex.
https://192.168.0.242/

You will see that you have 60 days to register it.

You have the key so let’s just register it.

Click on Manager under Host then open up the Licensing tab

Click on Assign License

Enter your license then click Check License

If it says it is valid click Assign License

You are good to go and you license never expires J

References

[1] VMWare trial

https://www.vmware.com/try-vmware.html

Accessed 3/2021

[2] RUFUS

https://rufus.ie/