We’re going to perform a clean installation of ESXi 8.
Keep in mind this is a lab, so we’ll skip steps such as configuring disks in RAID.
This ESXi will run nested (virtualized) in my lab. If you’d like to know how to do that,
let me know and I’ll be happy to help.
To download the ISOs, I recommend joining VMUG ADVANTAGE
Boot from the ISO to start the installation.
Continue loading. So far, we’re just booting the ISO and loading the files needed for installation into RAM.
Press Enter to continue.
Press F11 to accept the EULA.
Select the disk where ESXi will be installed and press Enter.
Select the language. In this example, I chose Spanish. You can change it later without rebooting.
Enter the password for the ROOT user.
If you see the following warning, that’s expected because we’re installing on older hardware for a lab, not a production environment.
Now press F11 to install to the disk. Note that you’ll be warned that the disk will be repartitioned for the system.
Installation in progress…
Done! Installation is complete.
Remove the ISO, USB drive, or other installation media, then press Enter to reboot and start ESXi.
Important: if it doesn’t boot as expected, check that the BIOS boot device matches the one you selected during installation.
Installation is complete.
Next, we’ll move on to step 2: initial setup and access to the web console.
Regards.