This project includes a simple makefile that helps you create a bootable USB installer for VMware ESXi on OSX. This is based on a similar script I made for ubuntu.
VMware ESXi is a lightweight operating system designed to run virtual machines. Whenever you hear about someone running virtual machines or cloud servers they're using ESXi, Xen, QEMU/KVM, or a similar technology under the hood.
ESXi is proprietary software, but you can download it and use it for free. You will need to register for a VMware account and download ESXi (also called "vSphere Hypervisor") before you use this script.
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Download the ESXi ISO and copy it into the same folder as this script. It will have a long name with a version number like
VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.0.0-2494585.x86_64.iso
. Rename it toesxi.iso
so the script can find it. -
Run
make devices
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Insert your USB stick. You'll see a new device appear in step 4.
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Run
make devices
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Note the disk number for your USB stick. It will be something like
/dev/disk2
. The only part you care about is 2 (or 3, or 4, or whatever) for step 6. -
make vmware DISK=2
Note: This step will ask for your password forsudo
. -
Pop the USB stick into the computer you want to vmware-ify and restart it.
Depending on how fast your USB stick is, step 6 make take awhile. On my computer it took around a minute and a half.