Hyperflex ESXI Pre-install on M.2 raid boot drive

[vincent paulin]

Hi,

One of my customers purchased a 3-node Hyperflex cluster and before starting the configuration, he decided to purchase an HX-M2-HWRAID and a second M.2 disk per server to secure the hypervisor boot disk.

What is the process to configure M2-Raid boot drive for ESXI reinstallation on these nodes before running HX-installer?

Thanks in advance for your help

[Kirk J]

You will want to do the following:

• Decommision the servers.
• replace the m.2 carrier with the raid one, along with the added 2nd M.2 drive
• Allow servers to rediscover
• Run HX installer (this will create M.2 HW raid oriented local disk and boot policy)
  • At the point during the config hypervisor workflow, you should get notice about No hypervisor present
  • Mount your HX customized ESXi ISO and choose the top option for converged node.
  • Continue with HX install workflow.

HX-M2-HWRAID option requires HX 4.51a and higher.

Kirk...

[vincent paulin]

Hi Kirk 
Thank you very much for your answer.
So the HX installer can be launched right after adding the new disk and Raid controller and it will just notice that the ESXi operating system is not installed  and ask me to mount the ISO? That's right!
I thought ESXI had to be installed on the boot disk before running the HX installer.

Thanks again for your answer!
Best regards

[Kirk J · Accepted solution]

The new HX-M2-HWRAID controller should clear off the jbod partition on your original M.2 disk.

You are correct in that the typical method (as listed in HX cleanup/redeploy guide) is to reinstall ESXi prior to running installer.

In your case, the process is different, and the later versions of HX installer will essentially pause at the step, allowing you to mount the ISO via vKVM.

I will reach out to the authors of the HX cleanup guide to see about getting this scenario added.

Kirk...