VMware ESXi 6.5 first look at install/config featuring vSphere Host Client HTML5 Web UI
It's here! Finally, those GA bits arrived today, ready for you to download. My original article has now been updated to include the new download links:
Today, I decided to record video of my very first install of the GA code on one of my two Xeon D cluster nodes. It went rather smoothly. Future videos will be more polished and much more thorough, including testing of the new VMFS 6 on a 10TB HGST He10 Helium drive with 512e advanced formatting, and on a rather fast Samsung 950 M.2 NVMe 512GB SSD, and soon on my (currently still backordered) Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe 1TB SSD.
Of course, they will also eventually be the the uncommonly thorough ESXi/VCSA install-and-configure video that skips NO steps, simplified and revised, for 6.5!
Video
Here's a cut-and-paste of the YouTube video description:
Read more/comment at: https://TinkerTry.com/first-look-at-esxi-6-5-install-and-html5-ui, where I explain that November 15 2016's GA level code was used here, not beta! Here's the files:
VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0-4564106.x86_64.iso
VMware-VCSA-all-6.5.0-4602587.iso
with download links at https://TinkerTry.com/downloadvsphere65#downloadThis video highlights the straightforward install of ESXi 6.5 that has changed very little since prior versions, but I share some tips along the way, and use a BIOS in UEFI mode. I've pre-configured my DNS with a DHCP reservation with name, FQDN, and reverse lookup, for both my ESXi host, and my VCSA host. The network DHCP/DNS/routing device I used is a ~$85 Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HXT8EKE?tag=tinkertryamzn-20, see: https://TinkerTry.com/highlights001#network but their ~$50 Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X should give you the same functionality. Either can be connected to just your home lab gear if you prefer, leaving your existing WiFi/router alone, assuming you have a way to get to a workstation on the same private lab network. I also used a ~$250 ASUS XG-U2008 fanless unmanaged switch featuring two 10GbE ports and 8 1GbE ports, see: https://TinkerTry.com/asus-xg-u2008-announced-at-249-with-2-10gbe-8-1gbe
The install is further simplified by using the iKVM remote console of the Supermicro SYS-5028D-TN4T Xeon D-1567 12 Core SuperServer (Bundle 2) https://TinkerTry.com/superservers#Bundle2-12c, but worry not, if you can skip this iKVM ISO mounting stuff and easily create a bootable USB flash drive for install to itself instead, prepared using Rufus: https://TinkerTry.com/rufus-takes-2-minutes-to-create-a-bootable-usb-flash-drive-for-esxi-installation
Once the hypervisor is running, you'll see my first login using the new vSphere Host Client, the web-based HTML5 UI.
Nov 19 2016 Update
Video
Nov 30 2016 Update
I've now VMFS 6.81 formatted my He10 drive, and performance of a VM on this new datastore that comes up at 9.1TB capacity is as expected for the ASM1062 SATA3 port it's currently on. I'll eventually move and retest on a Xeon D (Bundle 2) with Intel SATA3 ports, but lots of data to move around first.
See also at TinkerTry
See also
VMware's official announcement:
