Use powercli to create a custom esxi ISO image

Before we packaged ESXi ISO Most images use GitHub - VFrontDe/ESXi-Customizer-PS: PowerCLI script that greatly simplifies and automates the process of creating fully patched and customized VMware ESXi installation images Of this project powershell Script , Drive some community versions ( For example, the network card driver ,USB Network card driver, etc ) Encapsulate into ESXi ISO, In this way, the corresponding hardware can be directly identified during installation .

 

In fact, the above script is based on VMware.PowerCLI To achieve .PowerCLI yes VMware A very powerful Powershell The command library , There are almost 700 cmdlets  Can be used to manage and automate VMware A lot of products ( such as vSphere, vCloud Director, vRealize Operations Manager, vSAN, NSX-T, VMware Cloud Services, VMware Cloud on AWS, VMware HCX, VMware Site Recovery Manager, and VMware Horizon environments). and PowerCLI 12.0.0 Version update in , About ISO Mirror image , It is described as follows :

New cmdlets for managing auto-bootstrapping and new-style depots in vSphere 7.0 have been added to theVMware.DeployAutomationandVMware.ImageBuildermodule:

New/Set/Reset-LCMClusterRuleWithTransform

Get-DepotAddons

Get-DepotBaseImages

Get-DepotComponents

Get-DepotInfo

Get-DepotVibs

New-IsoImage

New-PxeImage

We noticed that it mentioned joining New-IsoImage( adopt VMware.ImageBuildermodule).

Query related documents ,New-IsoImage Command | VMware PowerCLI Reference and Create a Custom ESXi ISO Image with PowerCLI Cmdlets (vmware.com) There are very detailed methods of use .

And then we have Windows 11 (Windows 10 Empathy ) Configure the environment under the environment to learn the usage .

1. “ Run as administrator ” Windows Powershell perhaps Windows Terminal.

2. Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI If you are prompted whether to install NuGet And whether to start from "PSGallery" Please select “ yes ”,“ Is full of ”. Depending on the network , This installation process may take several minutes .

3. Set up Execution policy, Windows Execution of such third-party scripts is not allowed by default Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope LocalMachine For specific usage, please refer to Set-ExecutionPolicy (Microsoft.PowerShell.Security) - PowerShell | Microsoft Docs

4. Import-Module VMware.ImageBuilder

5. So let's use VMwre The official online repo To see what Image profile

Get-DepotBaseImages -Depot https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

The query takes dozens of seconds ：

Version                        Vendor            Release date

-------                            ------                ------------

7.0.0-1.25.16324942 VMware, Inc. 06/15/2020 23:00:00

7.0.0-1.20.16321839 VMware, Inc. 06/15/2020 23:00:00

7.0.0-1.0.15843807 VMware, Inc. 03/16/2020 08:40:41

7.0.1-0.35.19324898 VMware, Inc. 02/14/2022 23:00:00

7.0.1-0.15.17168206 VMware, Inc. 11/18/2020 23:00:00

7.0.1-0.10.17119627 VMware, Inc. 11/03/2020 23:00:00

7.0.1-0.25.17325551 VMware, Inc. 12/16/2020 23:00:00

7.0.1-0.20.17325020 VMware, Inc. 12/16/2020 23:00:00

7.0.1-0.30.17551050 VMware, Inc. 02/03/2021 23:00:00

7.0.1-0.0.16850804 VMware, Inc. 09/04/2020 16:33:22

7.0.2-0.0.17867351 VMware, Inc. 04/28/2021 23:00:00

7.0.2-0.15.18295176 VMware, Inc. 08/23/2021 23:00:00

7.0.2-0.20.18426014 VMware, Inc. 08/23/2021 23:00:00

7.0.2-0.25.18538813 VMware, Inc. 09/13/2021 23:00:00

7.0.2-0.30.19290878 VMware, Inc. 02/14/2022 23:00:00

7.0.3-0.20.19193900 VMware, Inc. 01/17/2022 23:00:00

7.0.3-0.30.19482531 VMware, Inc. 03/28/2022 23:00:00

7.0.3-0.35.19482537 VMware, Inc. 03/28/2022 23:00:00

Actually -Depot This parameter can also point to a local offline package ( Not ISO), such as ：

Get-DepotBaseImages -Depot C:\CustomImage\VMware-ESXi-7.0U3c-19193900-depot.zip

Version Vendor Release date

------- ------ ------------

7.0.3-0.20.19193900 VMware, Inc. 01/17/2022 23:00:00

Similar to that Get-DepotAddons and Get-DepotComponents

For example, you can query the community version network card driver package ：

Get-DepotComponents -Depot C:\CustomImage\Net-Community-Driver_1.2.7.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807_19480755.zip

6. Next, create a custom image Spec (json Format )：

{

    "base_image": {

        "version": "7.0.3-0.35.19482537"

    },

    "components": {

      "Net-Community-Driver": "1.2.7.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807"

  }

}

7. Use the offline package found above , Driver files and spec File to create a custom image ：

New-IsoImage -Depots "c:\CustomImage\VMware-ESXi-7.0U3c-19193900-depot.zip" , "c:\CustomImage\Net-Community-Driver_1.2.7.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807_19480755.zip" -SoftwareSpec "c:\CustomImage\spec.json" -Destination "c:\CustomImage\ESXi-70U3c-custom.iso"

PS: This method attempts to encapsulate USB NIC Flings When an error , It is a small driver bug, It is estimated that it will be repaired later .

New-IsoImage : Error retrieving file for VIB 'VMW_bootbank_vmkusb-nic-fling_1.8-3vmw.703.0.15.51233328':

("<zipfile.ZipExtFile name='vib20/vmkusb-nic-fling/VMW_bootbank_vmkusb-nic-fling_1.8-3vmw.703.0.15.51233328.vib'

mode='r' compress_type=deflate>", "Error opening file object for VIB

'VMW_bootbank_vmkusb-nic-fling_1.8-3vmw.703.0.15.51233328': Expected value '[]' for attribute 'swplatforms', but found

value '[<vmware.esximage.Vib.SoftwarePlatform object at 0x0000015A1ECEBB08>]'.").