For the past two weeks I've been trying to get an ESXi 4.1 Kickstart script created. It's currently a work in progress (WIP), but I'm letting it rest for a little while. I've been testing this script out on an ESXi 4.1 VM w/ 10 NICs to try and simulate my current environment. My current environment resembles my vSphere Host NIC Design - 10 NICs post.
The bulk of the script is working. There are a few parts where it's not working and you are more than welcome to try it out. I started this project so I could atleast get myself familiar with kickstarting an installation and diving a bit deeper into the ESXi commands. I tried a bunch of different options out there from ESX 4.0 kick-scripts and alot of stuff has changed in the syntax. Keep that in mind if you are developing your own script.
Thanks to Justin Guidroz (@juicelsu009 , Geaux Virtual) for putting up with all my questions. Justin has hacked the EDA a bit for ESXi 4.1 and has customized some more cool scripts, but I'm sure we can all expect EDA to fully support 4.1 in the near future. That's a big reason why I'm putting all this work to rest. Also check out Setting up vSphere ESXi 4.1 Scripted Installation from @virtualkenneth.
rootpw changeme install url http://192.168.187.66/ESXi autopart --firstdisk --overwritevmfs reboot #Network install type network --bootproto=static --addvmportgroup=false --device=vmnic0 --ip=192.168.50.13 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --gateway=192.168.50.1 --nameserver=192.168.3.2 --hostname=ESXi3.FQDN accepteula %firstboot --unsupported --interpreter=busybox #Assign VLAN to Management PortGroup esxcfg-vswitch -v 50 -p 'Management Network' vSwitch0 #Add vMotion Portgroup to vSwitch0 esxcfg-vswitch -A vMotion vSwitch0 #Add pNIC vmnic6 to vSwitch0 esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic6 vSwitch0 #Assign ip address to vMotion vmk1 esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 192.168.51.12 -n 255.255.255.0 -p vMotion #Assign VLAN to vMotion PortGroup esxcfg-vswitch -v 51 -p vMotion vSwitch0 sleep 10 #set vMotion to vmk vim-cmd hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set vmk1 #Set NIC order policy for port groups vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicorderpolicy-active=vmnic0 --nicorderpolicy-standby=vmnic6 vSwitch0 'Management Network' vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicorderpolicy-active=vmnic6 --nicorderpolicy-standby=vmnic0 vSwitch0 vMotion #Add new vSwitch for IP Storage esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch_IP-SAN #Set MTU to 9000 for jumbo frames on vSwitch esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 vSwitch_IP-SAN #Add Portgroup to vSwitch_IP-SAN esxcfg-vswitch -A NetApp_FAS2020a vSwitch_IP-SAN #Assign IP address to vmknic esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 192.168.52.12 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 NetApp_FAS2020a #Add NICs to new vSwitch esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic2 vSwitch_IP-SAN #Add NICs to new vSwitch esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic7 vSwitch_IP-SAN vim-cmd hostsvc/net/refresh sleep 10 #Change LoadBalance for Etherchannel - WORKS WHEN TYPED IN CLI BUT NOT WORKING IN SCRIPT FOR SOME REASON vim-cmd hostsvc/net/vswitch_setpolicy -–nicteaming-policy=loadbalance_ip vSwitch_IP-SAN #Add NFS datastores esxcfg-nas -a -o 192.168.52.101 -s /FAS2020a_Node1_NFS_A FAS2020a_Node1_NFS_A esxcfg-nas -a -o 192.168.52.101 -s /FAS2020a_Node1_NFS_B FAS2020a_Node1_NFS_B esxcfg-nas -a -o 192.168.52.102 -s /FAS2020a_Node2_NFS_A FAS2020a_Node2_NFS_A #Adding the FT Network esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch_FT esxcfg-vswitch -A Fault_Tolerance vSwitch_FT esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic4 vSwitch_FT esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic9 vSwitch_FT esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 192.168.55.12 -n 255.255.255.0 -p Fault_Tolerance vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicorderpolicy-active=vmnic4 --nicorderpolicy-standby=vmnic9 vSwitch_FT Fault_Tolerance vim-cmd hostsvc/advopt/update FT.Vmknic string vmk3 vim-cmd hostsvc/net/refresh #Set DNS vim-cmd hostsvc/net/dns_set --ip-addresses=192.168.3.23,192.168.3.2 # Set NFS advanced Configuration Settings esxcfg-advcfg -s 30 /Net/TcpipHeapSize esxcfg-advcfg -s 120 /Net/TcpipHeapMax esxcfg-advcfg -s 10 /NFS/HeartbeatMaxFailures esxcfg-advcfg -s 12 /NFS/HeartbeatFrequency esxcfg-advcfg -s 5 /NFS/HeartbeatTimeout esxcfg-advcfg -s 64 /NFS/MaxVolumes # NTP time config - NOT WORKING!! echo "Configuring NTP" echo restrict default kod nomodify notrap noquerynopeer > /etc/ntp.conf echo restrict 127.0.0.1 >> /etc/ntp.conf echo server 0.vmware.pool.ntp.org >> /etc/ntp.conf echo server 2.vmware.pool.net.org >> /etc/ntp.conf echo driftfile /var/lib/ntp/drift >> /etc/ntp.conf /sbin/chkconfig –-level 345 ntpd on /etc/init.d/ntpd start #enable SSH TechSupportMode - shouldn't use this, was just a test vim-cmd hostsvc/enable_remote_tsm vim-cmd hostsvc/start_remote_tsm vim-cmd hostsvc/net/refresh #grep ^admins: /etc/group > /dev/null || groupadd admins #useradd -g admins -c LocalESXAccount LocalESX #echo mypassword | passwd --stdin LocalESX
Remember these have to be edited in something like Notepad++