Chapter 2

Planning and Installing VMware ESXi

Now that you've taken a closer look at VMware vSphere and its suite of applications in Chapter 1, “Introducing VMware vSphere 5,” it's easy to see that VMware ESXi is the foundation of vSphere. The deployment, installation, and configuration of VMware ESXi require adequate planning for a successful, VMware-supported implementation.

In this chapter, you will learn to

• Understand the differences between ESXi Installable and ESXi Embedded
• Understand ESXi compatibility requirements
• Plan an ESXi deployment
• Deploy ESXi
• Perform post-installation configuration of ESXi
• Install the vSphere Client