But I need to get a local disk attached to my ESXi server first which will require a purchase. Also, I need to make some time. The plan is as follows, so if anyone reads this they might be able to try it out. First of all, get a disk, the smaller the better, and partition it to the same size as a USB key, the bigger the better. Or a LUN. Not having created a VMFS filesystem before, I’m not sure if it will work on a partition or whether it swallows the whole disk. Anyway, ideally the USB key should be the same size as the disk.

Create a datastore on the locally attached disk. Use “dd” to copy that disk to a file and then dd the file onto the USB stick. That *should* (might) create a VMFS filesystem on the USB key. Basically that is how ESXi gets installed on the USB key albeit with VFAT filesystems and a partition table which gives you Hypervisor1-4.

Once that’s done, ESXi may or may not be able to recognise it. And if it does, will we be able to do anything with it?

That’s my theory (and some experiments to be done).