Hyperflex C220 M5 unable to detect USB bootable drive

[Markus5849]

I've created a usb bootable drive to reimage my hyperflex C220 M5 converged node to ESXi 7.0U3. But when I go into the boot menu I don't see my connected USB drive there. 

I've created the bootable USB drive using rufus and I have chose the following options but both also can't be detected:

MBR, UEFI, FAT32 (Not detected)

GPT, UEFI, NTFS (Not detected)

GPT, UEFI, FAT32 (Not detected)

Any specific requirements for creating a USB bootable drive for installing VMware ESXi on Hyperflex C220 M5 node without mounting virtual media?

[Steven Tardy · Accepted solution]

Personally I've never used a USB drive as KVM vMedia works without me leaving my chair.

Why exactly are you re-imaging a Hyperflex server? Hyperflex node re-imaging is usually a TAC lead process (unless you're re-imaging the entire Hyperflex cluster.)

Are you copying the full .iso file onto the USB drive? (Doubt this works, but maybe.)
Or are you copying the files within the .iso image onto the USB drive? (Don't know if this works either, but more likely to work.)

Any chance secure boot is enabled? Secure boot may prevent booting from removable media like a USB drive.

[Markus5849]

I'm still not sure why its not working, the USB can be booted but the installation will fail. So I ended up configuring the CIMC as standalone mode and mount KVM vMedia for the installation. That works perfectly.