Export an Image Profile to ISO or Offline Bundle ZIP

You can export an image profile to an ISO image or a ZIP file by using the vSphere Client. You can use the ISO image as an ESXi installer or to upgrade hosts with vSphere Upgrade Manager. The ZIP file contains metadata and the VIBs of the image profile. You can use it for ESXi upgrades or as an offline depot.

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.

Procedure

1. Navigate to Home > Auto Deploy.
   By default, only the administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.
2. On the Software Depots tab, use the drop-down menu to select the software depot that contains the image profile that you want to work with.
3. On the Image Profiles tab, select the image profile that you want to export and click Export.
   The Export Image Profile window appears.
4. Select the type of the exported file.

   Option	Description
   ISO	Exports the image profile to a bootable ISO image. If you want to create an ISO image that you can burn to a CD or DVD and use to boot up a stateless ESXi instance, select the Do not include an installer on the ISO check box.
   ZIP	Exports the image profile to a ZIP file.

5. (Optional) If you want to bypass the acceptance level verification of the image profile, select Skip acceptance level checking.
6. Click Ok.
   The Download link starts generating in the "Download Image Profiles" column of the selected image profile.
7. When the image generates successfully, click Download to save the exported file.

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.