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VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi)

Available for automatic installation in your management console ESXi offers many features. It supports up to 1TB of RAM and 32 virtual processors.
You can find more informations about ESXi on the vmware Website (http://www.vmware.com/en/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere-hypervisor/overview).

Get a free license for ESXi


You have to subscribe on the vmware website and retrieve your free serial number, enter it then in vSphere:

  • Launch vSphere
  • Tab: configuration
  • Edit on license source
  • Select use serial number and enter the licence

Network configuration

For ESXi installation (also for Proxmox)

You need to have at least one failover IP, with a virtual MAC address associated to the IP.

To order a failover IP click on Server > IP Failover > Order IP addresses

Once the failover IP and its MAC address are activated, use these information to configure your VM using vSphere.

If it's not done before turning on the VM, your servers network port will be locked because you are broadcasting a non registered MAC address:

“Your server's network port is off. If you just asked for a server reboot, or to boot in rescue or test mode, this message will only be displayed for a few seconds. Otherwise, our network equipment may be on protective mode due to non-authorized network traffic. In this case, please ask our support team to unlock your server.”

You can find all information about the configuration of a failover IP on a virtual machine in our dedicated documentation.

Activation of SSH in ESXi


Connect locally to your ESXi using the iDRAC/iLO/KVM over IP of your server.
Press “F2” to connect yourself using your credentials:

Go to the menu Troubleshooting Options

Press “Enter” on Enable remote Tech Support (SSH) to activate the SSH access.

Logout of ESXi, you are able to connect yourself with SSH now

Reset password on ESXi

It's not possible to reset password on ESXi :

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1317898

But by KVM, you can connect you on the ESXi Admin Panel (only if you know your old password) and you can change password in the Configure Password part of the panel.

You have to use the Virtual Keyboard to type your password.