vSphere kickstart script

For a while now, I’m giving a self made course about VMware ESX 3.0. Until now, the customer provided the hardware or the company who heirs me for this course provided the hardware. This was a time consuming tasks because a employee form this company (Ictivity Training) had to put all the hardware is his car (2 till 4 Dell PowerEdge 2900 server, 3 switches, 1 NetApp Fas270 and a lot of cables) drove to the customers site and setup the hardware.

Now with vSphere where planning to give all courses on-line. So the hardware keeps in de datacenter in Eindhoven and the onlything a customer must provide is a internet connection. Only disadvantage is that VMware vShpere has to be installed on the hosts. No problem but this also can by time consuming.

There for I created a kickstart script. I posted out here so you can make advantage of it. Just save the text below in a ks.cfg text file. Make some changes to the password and ip information  and put it on a USB flash drive.
Start from DVD where vShpere is located and choose the 3th option to start a kickstart script from USB.

The root password is: vmware

install cdrom
keyboard us
#Network Setup
network –device=vmnic0 –bootproto=static –ip=192.168.10.1 –netmask=255.255.255.0 –gateway=192.168.10.254 –nameserver=192.168.10.254 –hostname=esx1.vmware.lan –addvmportgroup=1 –vlanid=0
rootpw vmware
firewall –enabled
#Authentication
authconfig –enableshadow –enablemd5
#Time Setup
timezone Europe/Amsterdam
#Bootloader
bootloader –location=mbr

#Partitioning
#Note all partitions on the first disk will be cleared! Remove any FC links!
clearpart –firstdisk –overwritevmfs
part ‘/boot’ –fstype=ext3 –size=200 –onfirstdisk
part ‘Storage1’ –fstype=vmfs3 –size=20000 –grow –onfirstdisk
part ‘none’ –fstype=vmkcore –size=100 –onfirstdisk
#Virtualdisk
virtualdisk ‘esxconsole’ –size=15000 –onvmfs=’Storage1′
#Partition the virtualdisk
part ‘/’ –fstype=ext3 –size=10000 –grow –onvirtualdisk=’esxconsole’
part ‘/var/log’ –fstype=ext3 –size=3000 –onvirtualdisk=’esxconsole’
part ‘swap’ –fstype=swap –size=1000 –onvirtualdisk=’esxconsole’

#License Agreement Accept
accepteula

%post –interperter=bash

About Michael
Michael Wilmsen is a experienced VMware Architect with more than 20 years in the IT industry. Main focus is VMware vSphere, Horizon View and Hyper Converged with a deep interest into performance and architecture. Michael is VCDX 210 certified, has been rewarded with the vExpert title from 2011, Nutanix Tech Champion and a Nutanix Platform Professional.

2 Comments to “vSphere kickstart script”

  1. By Kamal, November 13, 2009 @ 08:49

    Excellent man. it is very easy to follow. my regards

  2. By Kamal, November 13, 2009 @ 08:49

    Excellent man. it is very easy to follow. my regards

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