Create an Image Profile

You can create a new image profile by using the vSphere Client instead of cloning an existing one. You might consider creating a new image profile if it differs significantly from the image profiles in your inventory.

Prerequisites

• Verify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the vSphere ESXi Image Builder in the vSphere Web Client.
• Add or import a software depot to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. See Add a Software Depot and Import a Software Depot.
• Verify that there is at least one custom depot in the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory.

Procedure

1. Navigate to Home > Auto Deploy.
   By default, only the administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.
2. From the Software depot drop-down menu, select in which custom depot to add the new image profile.
3. On the Image Profiles tab, click New Image Profile.
4. Enter an image profile name, vendor, and description.
   You must enter a unique image profile name.
5. Click Next.
   The Select software packages page appears.
6. From the drop-down menu, select an acceptance level for the image profile.
   The acceptance level of the VIBs you add to the base image must be at least as high as the level of the base image. If you add a VIB with a lower acceptance level to the image profile, you must lower the image profile acceptance level. For more information, see Working with Acceptance Levels.
7. Select the VIBs that you want to add to the image profile and deselect the ones that you want to remove, and click Next.
   Note: The image profile must contain a bootable ESXi image to be valid.
   vSphere ESXi Image Builder verifies that the change does not invalidate the profile. Some VIBs depend on other VIBs and become invalid if you include them in an image profile separately. When you add or remove a VIB, vSphere ESXi Image Builder checks whether the package dependencies are met.
8. On the Ready to complete page, review the summary information for the new image profile and click Finish.

What to do next

• You can associate an image profile with a new vSphere Auto Deploy rule to provision ESXi hosts. See Create a Deploy Rule or Clone a Deploy Rule.
• You can associate an image profile with an ESXi host. See Add a Host to the vSphere Auto Deploy Inventory.
• Edit the Image Profile Association of a Host.
• Select and Delete an Image profile.
• View Software Packages for the selected image profile.