Scripted installation is an alternative way to deploy ESXi hosts. It can be used when several hosts need to be deployed or upgraded.
Tip
To deploy a large number of hosts, the Auto Deploy feature described in the Deploying new hosts faster with auto deploy recipe in this chapter may be more suitable.
The installation script contains ESXi settings and can be accessed by a host during the ESXi boot from the following locations:
FTP
HTTP or HTTPS
NFS
USB flash drive or CD-ROM
The following sections describe the process of creating an installation script and using it to boot the ESXi host.
An installation script contains installation options for ESXi. It's a text file with the .cfg extension.
The best way to create an installation script is to use the default script supplied with the ESXi installer and modify it. The default script is located in the /etc/vmware/weasel/ folder location and is called ks.cfg...