Reinstall ESXi on ucs-c240 (using CIMC?)

[an.leon.li]

hi, I am wondering what is the best way to reinstall ESXi on a UCS C240.

If I "clear boot drive" using CIMC, does it kinda like format the logic disk? so that i can reinstall? 

i need to reinstall a lower ESXi on a freshly installed UCS due to the vCentre's version lower than the installed ESXi. 

Please advise..

thanks! 

[Kirk J · Accepted solution]

Greetings.

Mounting the ESXi install ISO via vKVM, and running the installer when existing partitions are present, will trigger a menu to choose from several options:

• Upgrade ESXi, preserve VMFS datastores
• Install ESXi, preserve VMFS datastores
• Install ESXi, overwrite VMFS datastores.

Either one of the "install" ESXi options will delete and recreate the OS and boot related partitions fresh.

the Preserve/overwrite datastore option lets you decide if you want to retain the datastore partitions if you have guest VMs stored there.

Thanks,

Kirk...

[an.leon.li]

Thanks Kirk,

How do I run the installer? boot from the mounted vDVD? 

[Wes Austin · Accepted solution]

Correct. Press F6 during boot up and select the virtually mounted KVM vDVD/CD boot option if using vMedia. Run the ISO and follow the prompts and you'll be good.

[an.leon.li]

thanks guys,

i will give that a go.