Downloading an ESXi Offline Bundle

To Auto Deploy an ESXi server, we need to have the ESXi Offline Bundle ready. The vanilla version of the offline bundle can be downloaded from the VMware's website. Customized Offline Bundles from the server vendors are available for download from the vendor's website. It is also available at VMware's download page. It is under the Drivers & Tools tab and listed under the category OEM Customized Installer CDs.

How to do it…

You can download the ESXi 5.1 Offline Bundle from VMware's downloads page: https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VCL-VSP510-ESXI-510-EN&productId=285&rPId=3361.

See the following screenshot that shows the bundle name and details.

Copy the downloaded Offline Bundle ZIP into the machine where vSphere PowerCLI will be Installed. That is, we have to copy it in to a directory C:\AutoDeploy-VIBS.