Quick tip: Create a bootable VMware ESXi stick

There are multiple tools available to create a bootable VMware ESXi USB stick/drive/key such as:

• UNetbootin, link
• Rufus, link

My favorite tool to create a VMware ESXi USB stick/key is Rufus. I use Rufus because it’s small, fast, Windows-based, open-sourced and the tool is updated frequently.

Requirements

Requirements for creating a VMware ESXi key:

• Windows Operating System (Windows 7 or later)
• Rufus download
• VMware ESXi ISO download.

Create a USB Stick

To create a VMware ESXi stick is easy. Perform the following steps:

• Start Rufus
• Select the USB device
• Select the ESXi ISO
• Press Start
• Data on the USB key will be destroyed.

When the progress status bar is READY, the VMware ESXi bootable is created and ready to boot. I tested the creation of the ESXi USB stick with the latest version of VMware ESXi 6.7 and VMware ESXi 7.