VMware released  vSphere version 6.0 and starting with this post I will cover installation of various vSphere 6.0 components. In first post I will cover installation of nested ESXi 6.0 running on VMware ESXi 5.5 as main platform.

Installing VMware ESXi 6.0

I am using fresh ISO VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.0.0-2494585.x86_64.iso.

Let’s start with installation of ESXi 6.0

Virtual Machine setup

1. Click New Virtual Machine.
   

   

2. Choose Create a new virtual machine from wizard.

   

3. Give Virtual Machine meaningful name and if necessary place it in appropriate folder.

   

4. Select compute resource.

   

5. Select appropriate datastore.

   

6. Choose virtual machine version.

   

7. Select guest OS - Linux, Other Linux (64-bit).

   

8. In Customize hardware section select following settings:
9. CPU - 2 vCPU
10. Memory - 8GB
11. Hard disk - 2GB
12. Network - E1000

    

13. In CPU section select Expose the NX/XD flag to guest and Expose hardware assisted virtualization to the guest OS.

    

14. On the Ready to complete screen review your settings and click Finish.

    

 Installing ESXi 6.0

Installation of ESXi 6.0 is really simple and can be done in few steps.

1. Mount ISO to Virtual Machine and power it on.
   

   

2. Click enter and wait for ESXi installer to boot.

   

3. Click enter to start installation.
   

   

4. Click F11 to accept EULA.
   

   

5. Select previously created disk.
   

   

6. Select keyboard layout and press enter to continue.
   

   

7. Enter a root password and click enter.
   

   

8. After a moment on last screen press F11 to install ESXi 6.0.
   

   

9. Wait a moment until installer does its job.
   

   

10. Remove the installation disk before rebooting and click enter.
    

    

11. After reboot we have almost fully operational ESXi 6.0.

    

12. After configuration of ESXi with IP address we can login into it using vSphere Client.

    

13. I installed quickly Windows Server 2012 R2 and it is working perfectly fine.