Kickstart entries example for ESX 4.0

For ESX 4.0, kickstart file entries have a format and syntax different from all other ESX platforms.

The following are the characteristics of the ESX 4.0 kickstart file:

• Kickstart entries have key=value entries instead of space-separated entries.

• If you set the Kickstart Device using the MAC_ADDRESS_CD property, the Kickstart entry is --device=??MAC_ADDRESS_CD??
  where MAC_ADDRESS_CDis a colon-separated MAC address.

  Note

  • The value for MAC_ADDRESS_CD must be a colon-separated MAC address.
    In addition, the MAC_ADDRESS and DEVICE.MAC_ADDRESS properties are not supported for the ESX 4.0 system package type. Both properties resolve to a hyphen-separated MAC address, which is not supported by ESX 4.0.
  • The ESX 4.0 Kickstart does not support ethX as the value for --device.
• If you provided a License Key on the Computer Settings tab, its Kickstart entry is serialnum.
• The --hostname key specifies the name for the installed system. This key works only with -bootproto=static.
• By default, the system clears the disks that you listed on the disk partition panel in the clearpart entry.
• If you do not provide a value for ondisk, the system uses --ondiskfirst as the value.
• If you do not provide a value for onvmfsdisk, the system uses --onfirstvmfs.
• Kickstart for ESX 4.0 does not support the following:
  • mouse
  • lang
  • lang support
  • text

Example: Part of an ESX 4.0 kickstart file

In the clearpart entry in the following example, sbh is an example disk partition specified by the user on the disk partition panel.

accepteula
keyboard us
serialnum --esx=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
network --bootproto=dhcp --device=??MAC_ADDRESS_CD??
bootloader --location=mbr
clearpart --drives=sbh -overwritevmfs
part None --fstype=vmkcore --size=1280 --ondisk=sdb
part /boot --fstype=ext3 --size=1100 --ondisk=sdb
part Storage1 --fstype=vmfs3 --size=10000 --grow --ondisk=sdb
virtualdisk myconsole --size=8000 --onvmfs=Storage1
part swap --fstype=swap --size=600 --onvirtualdisk=myconsole
part / --fstype=ext3 --size=5120 --grow --onvirtualdisk=myconsole
firewall --allowIncoming --allowOutgoing
timezone --utc Asia/Calcutta
rootpw --iscrypted ROOT_PASSWORD
auth --useshadow --enabled
install url http://??DATA_STORE_IP??/??DATA_STORE_VIRTUAL_DIR??/ISO/ESX4/ESX4GA