vSphere 5.5 Create an Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script

You can customize the standard ESXi installer ISO image with your own installation or upgrade script. This
enables you to perform a scripted, unattended installation or upgrade when you boot the resulting installer
ISO image.

Prerequisites
n Linux machine.
n The ESXi ISO image VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.x.x-XXXXXX.x86_64.iso,where 5.x.x is the version of
ESXi you are installing, and XXXXXX is the build number of the installer ISO image.
n Your custom installation or upgrade script, the ks_cust.cfg kickstart file.

Procedure
1 Download the ESXi ISO image from the VMware Web site.
2 Mount the ISO image into a folder:
mount -o loop VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.x.x-XXXXXX.x86_64.iso /esxi_cdrom_mount
XXXXXX is the ESXi build number for the version that you are installing or upgrading to.
3 Copy the contents of cdrom to another folder:
cp -r /esxi_cdrom_mount /esxi_cdrom
4 Copy the kickstart file to /esxi_cdrom
cp ks_cust.cfg /esxi_cdrom
5 (Optional) Modify the boot.cfg file to specify the location of the installation or upgrade script using the
kernelopt option.
This step makes the installation or upgrade completely automatic, without the need to specify the
kickstart file during the installation or upgrade.
6 Recreate the ISO image:
mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -J -R -o custom_esxi.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot
-boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table /esxi_cdrom
The ISO image now includes your custom installation or upgrade script.