PowerCLI Basics – Create custom ESXi ISO image

Here is a quick post on how to create a custom ESXi ISO image using PowerCLI.

Cmdlets used and the corresponding reference page:

• Add-ESXSoftwareDepot
• New-EsxImageProfile
• Export-EsxImageProfile

1. First, connect to the vCenter Server: PowerCLI C:> Connect-VIServer <IP_or_FQDN>
2. Next, add the ESXi offline bundle to the depot: PowerCLI C:> Add-EsxSoftwareDepot C:VMware-ESXi-5.5.0-1331820-depot.zip
3. Add a custom driver to the depot. I used the iSCSI Driver for Emulex: PowerCLI C:> Add-EsxSoftwareDepot C:be2iscsi-10.0.727.44-offline_bundle-1525244.zip
4. Clone the ESXi image: PowerCLI C:> New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile ESXi-5.5.0-1331820-standard -Name ESXi-5.5.0-custom -Vendor VMware
5. Get the Emulex driver name: PowerCLI C:> Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Vendor Emulex
6. Add the driver to the new image: PowerCLI C:> Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile ESXi-5.5.0-custom -SoftwarePackage ima-be2iscsi,scsi-be2iscsi
7. The new drivers should now be listed in the package.
8. Export as ISO: PowerCLI C:> Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile ESXi-5.5.0-custom -FilePath C:ESXi5.5.0-custom.iso -ExportToIso

Done.

Tested using vSphere PowerCLI 5.5.

Or you can use the ESXi image customization script by Andreas Peetz 🙂

Cheers!

– Marek.Z