Create an ESXi installation ISO with custom drivers in 9 easy steps!

** Update 03/06/2020 – Though I had good luck with the HP 593742-001 NC523SFP DUAL PORT SFP+ 10Gb card in my Gen 4 Home Lab, I found it faulty when running in my Gen 5 Home Lab. Could be I was using a PCIe x4 slot in Gen 4, or it could be the card runs to hot to touch. For now this card was removed from VMware HCL, HP has advisories out about it, and after doing some poking around there seem to be lots of issues with it. Again – Any products I blog about may or may not work – YOU ultimately assume all risk **

One of the challenges in running a VMware based home lab is the ability to work with old / inexpensive hardware but run latest software. Its a balance that is sometimes frustrating, but when it works it is very rewarding. Most recently I decided to move to 10Gbe from my InfiniBand 40Gb network. Part of this transition was to create an ESXi ISO with the latest build (6.7U3) and appropriate network card drivers. In this video blog post I’ll show 9 easy steps to create your own customized ESXi ISO.

Here are the steps I took in this Video Blog: https://wp.me/pZlFx-xF