ESXi Installation

A mirror should be setup firstly before installation. For ESXi, there is only one way to setup mirror currently.

  • Local ISO mirror: Download ESXi ISO image, mount ISO image in a local server as the repository, http service for this repository is provided so that a node could access without proxy.
mkdir ~/iso && cd !/iso

# Download iso file from https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere_hypervisor_esxi/6_0

# Create mirror folder
mkdir -p /var/mirrors/esxi

# Replace {on-http-dir} with your own
mkdir -p {on-http-dir}/static/http/mirrors

# Mount iso
sudo mount VMware-VMvisor-Installer-201507001-2809209.x86_64.iso /var/mirrors/esxi

# Replace {on-http-dir} with your own
sudo ln -s /var/mirrors/esxi {on-http-dir}/static/http/mirrors/

Call API to Install OS

Get payload example:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RackHD/RackHD/master/example/samples/install_esx_payload_minimal.json

Remember to replace version and repo with your own, see fileServerAddress and fileServerPort in /opt/monorail/config.json

Create workflow, replace the 9090 port if you are using other ports You can configure the port in /opt/monorail/config.json -> httpEndPoints -> northbound-api-router

curl -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d @install_esxi_payload_minimal.json 127.0.0.1:9090/api/current/nodes/{node-id}/workflows?name=Graph.InstallESXi | jq '.'

Note

For more detail about payload file please refer to Non-Windows OS Installation Workflow Payload