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How to Install VMware ESXi 6.5 on DELL Optiplex 7010

This article will show how to install ESXi-6.5 on a DELL Optiplex tower with the following:

  • Intel Quad Core i5 up to 3.8GHz Processor
  • 32 GB of Ram
  • 1TB of non-SSD datastore
  • 450GB SSD datastore
  • 8GB Flash drive (where ESXi-6.5 will be installed)

The ESXi 6.5 OS is installed and will run on an 8GB USB drive plugged into the back of the tower. By the way, the ESXi 6.5 OS is very compact only taking up about 350MB of memory. The idea of running the OS from a flash drive took a little getting used to but it makes a lot of sense. In order to create the ESXi OS on the flash drive, download ISO image by from https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere.html. You will first have to create an account if you don’t already have the ISO. Use Rufus to create flash drive with https://rufus.ie/en/.

Rufus 4.00 ISO Flash Drive Creator

Once downloaded, start Rufus to create boot ISO.  Since I’m using VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0.update03-13932383.x86_64, I point to this image when I open Rufus under the boot selection section.  It should resemble the screen below.  With the newly created flash drive, place it in one of the for ports.  During the initial boot, you will see initial blue boot screen below.

The front view of the DELL Optiplex server has 4 USB ports were the ISO flash drive initially can be placed during boot. As the image starts to load, place the second flash drive in the other remaining port.  During the initial boot, you will eventually see the following blue screen below.

Finally, the list of the scanned drives will appear:

Notice the first two drives (* ATA) are the 1TB and 450GB SSD, respectively. The Kingston drive is the ISO boot and the bottom drive listed is where the actual ESXi OS will be installed. This will put the OS on the second instead of the two internal drives. You will be prompt if there is any data on the target drive, it will be erased.

The current version of ESXi-7.0 or greater does not work with the Optiplex 7010 chip-set, but it works fine with ESXi-6.5.  Thus, the newer version is not backward compatible with this older hardware.  If there is a hardware issue, it will be flagged during the ISO flash drive installation.

At this point, remove ISO flash drive place the newly created flash drive preferably in the rear of your particular server since this will be the ESXi-6.5 boot drive.  Be sure to set the flash drive as the boot drive in the BOIS.