1. The VMware vSphere 5.0 Image Builder
John Balsillie
VCI VCAP4-DCA VCP4 VCP3
Consultant – Explorer IT Services

2. What Is an ESXi Image?
An ESXi image is a software bundle that consists of four main components.
core hypervisor
CIM providers
plug-in components
drivers

3. missing vendor plug-in
ESXi Image Deployment
The challenge of using a standard ESXi image is that the image might be missing desired functionality.
missing CIM provider ?
missing driver
standard ESXi ISO
base providers
base drivers
missing vendor plug-in

4. What Is Image Builder?
Image Builder is a set of command-line utilities that are used to create and manage image profiles.
An image profile is a group of VIBs that are used to create an ESXi image.
Image Builder allows the administrator to build customized ESXi boot images:
Used for booting disk-based ESXi installations
Used by VMware vSphere® Auto Deploy to boot an ESXi host in memory
Image Builder is based on VMware vSphere® PowerCLI.
The Image Builder cmdlets are included with the vSphere PowerCLI tools.

5. Image Builder Architecture
VIB:
ESXi software package:
Provided by VMware and its partners
Image profile:
Defines an ESXi image
Consists of one or more VIBs
Software depot:
Logical grouping of VIBs and image profiles
Can be online or offline
Software channel:
Used to group different types of VIBs at a software depot
software depot
image profile
ESXi VIBs
driver VIBs
OEM VIBs
security VIBs
software channels

6. Building an ESXi Image: Step 1
Start the vSphere PowerCLI session.
Verify that the execution policy is set to unrestricted.
Cmdlet: Get-ExecutionPolicy
Connect to your vCenter Server.
Cmdlet: Connect-VIServer
Windows host with vSphere PowerCLI and Image Builder snap-in
Image
Builder

7. Building an ESXi Image: Step 2
software depot
Connect to a software depot.
Add a software depot to Image Builder.
Cmdlet: Add-EsxSoftwareDepot
Verify that the software depot can be read.
Cmdlet: Get-EsxImageProfile
ESXi VIBs
image profile
driver VIBs
Windows host with vSphere PowerCLI and Image Builder snap-in
Image
Builder
OEM VIBs

8. Building an ESXi Image: Step 3
software depot
Clone and modify an image profile.
Clone an image profile.
Cmdlet: New-EsxImageProfile
Modify an image profile.
Cmdlets: Add-EsxSoftwarePackage Remove-EsxSoftwarePackage
ESXi VIBs
image profile
driver VIBs
Windows host with vSphere PowerCLI and Image Builder snap-in
Image
Builder
Start by cloning the default ESXi image provided by VMware and then customize it.
OEM VIBs

9. Using Image Builder to Build an Image: Step 4
Generate a new ESXi image.
Cmdlet: Export-ESXImageProfile
software depot
ESXi VIBs
image profile
driver VIBs
Windows host with vSphere PowerCLI and Image Builder snap-in
Image
Builder
ISO image
OEM VIBs
PXE-bootable Image

10. Boot of an Autodeployed ESXi Host: Step 3
The ESXi image is downloaded from the Auto Deploy server to the host. The host profile is downloaded from vCenter Server to the host.
OEM VIBs
ESXi VIBs
driver VIBs
image profile
“waiter”
rules engine
ESXi image
Auto Deploy
image profile, host profile, cluster info
vCenter Server
Host Profile
host profile
ESXi host
ESXi image (VIBs)
TFTP
DHCP

11. Demo Demo VMware Workstation on Windows
1 x vCenter 5.0 virtual machine with:
vSphere Client
PowerCLI
Auto Deploy and thus Image Builder
2 x ESXi 5.0 virtual machines

12. Demo
Demo Script
get-executionpolicy
set-executionpolicy unrestricted
connect-viserver vc01.vclass.local or vc02.vclass.local
add-esxsoftwaredepot c:\depot\LSI_5_ \LSI_5_34-offline_bundle zip
get-esxsoftwarepackage
add-esxsoftwaredepot c:\depot\BCD-bna \BCD-bna offline_bundle zip
add-esxsoftwaredepot c:\depot\labdepot
get-esximageprofile
new-esximageprofile -cloneprofile ESXi standard -name "my_profile"
add-esxsoftwarepackage -imageprofile "my_profile" -softwarepackage scsi-megaraid-sas
add-esxsoftwarepackage -imageprofile "my_profile" -softwarepackage net-bna
export-esximageprofile -imageprofile "my_profile" -filepath c:\depot\esxi5.0.0-my_profile iso -exporttoiso –force
Install ESXi into a vm from c:\depot\esxi5.0.0-my_profile iso

13. Key Points
Image Builder allows the administrator to create customized ESXi boot images.
Auto Deploy is a new method for deploying ESXi hosts, where the ESXi host’s state and configuration run entirely in memory.
Questions?
John Balsillie
Explorer IT Services