What are the pros and cons regarding install vSphere 5 on USB-stick

[TomLambrechts]

I'm having some trouble to perform boot-from-iscsi and was thinking about a temporary workaround.
I want to install vSphere 5 on a USB-stick, boot from usb stick and when all problems with boot-from-iscsi are solved, use vMotion to migrate the VM's to the other ESX host.

What are the pros and cons regaring USB-install ?

Maybe this is even better than perform boot-from-iscsi.:smileycool:

[TomLambrechts]

more details: we are having these boot-from-iscsi problems with a Broadcom NetXtreme II 5709 NIC.

[nkrishnan · Accepted solution]

Hi,

We dont have any difference between USB install and Install ESXi on Harddrive. all the features and functionalities are same. You have do following additional configuration on USB install if required

- Remote Syslog configuration

- Netdump configuration or change the coredump partition to harddisk by creating additional VMKcore on Harddrive.

- Try to use the qualified USB stick (refer the Hardware vendor documentation).

Are you looking for any specific limitation other than above mentioned.

Thanks

Nithin

[tigerdeccan]

Not much difference ,

however USB- SSD made booting faster .

on USB embedded install  I had to point the some log partitions on larger datastore .

USB works great . Its easier to rebuild in case of failover too   

[raj196]

Hi tom,  

there is no more difference.but need small change that is host registering a vCenter VM on it (unless you already know where you vCenter is) .

If at first you don't succeed; call it version 1.0"

[TomLambrechts]

Ok...  I want to boot from USB stick (externally connected).
Can someone point me to the list of qualified usb stick vendors for vSphere 5 ?

[tigerdeccan]

What is the make of your hardware ?

I've used sandisk SHDC memory card.

[TomLambrechts]

it's for a cisco usc c200 server, but needs to be usb2.

[tigerdeccan]

Try any good brand like sandisk  , should be fine . Once esxi boots everything is played by RAM so its not a big deal .

Thanks  

[TomLambrechts]

What size of USB stick should it be ?   8GB / 16GB ?

[tigerdeccan]

depends on the hardware vendors built , mine is a HP , ISO file is about 2 GB . however I bought 4 GB .

you might as well buy 4GB , should be fine , and also check how big your ISO will be .. 

[nkrishnan]

8GB or above should be sufficent to install ESXi and Hardware management software.

also we use kingstone or sandisk as external USB stick to test and found working fine

[TomLambrechts]

Great to hear this from all of you, thanks !!!

Is there a way to use a second usb stick in mirror ?

Or can we duplicate the contents of the usb stick somehow ?