Connect USB and create partition on it. Then use fdisk with that:
The create file system on new partition (need package dosfstools on Archlinux).
mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n USB /dev/sdb1
Mount flash drive.
mkdir /mnt/usb && mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
Mount ESX installation ISO.
mkdir /mnt/disk
mount -o loop VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.x.x-XXXXXX.x86_64.iso /mnt/disk
Copy content of disk on USB key.
cp -r /usb/disk/* /mnt/usb
Rename config file for boot.
mv /mnt/usb/isolinux.cfg /mnt/usb/syslinux.cfg
In the file /usbdisk/syslinux.cfg, change the line:
APPEND -c boot.cfg
to:
APPEND -c boot.cfg -p 1
Unmount stuff and you are done.
umount /mnt/usb && umount /mnt/disk
Now the USB key can boot ESX installer.
ESXi 5.1 does not have network drivers for the model DYE of Intel NUC. So installing it has needed to create a custom ISO with the network driver included. The driver is called E1001E.tgz and program used to compile new ISO was called ESXi-customizer. Look at that on the net if needed… At least it worked correctly.
ovftool is a generic VMware command that can be used to save and deploy VMs in ESX, vSphere, vCenter, Fusion, etc. Here is an example of how to save an ova file (VM template with spec and disks compressed) from an existing vmx file:
ovftool $HOME/path/vm/machine.vmx $HOME/path/res/machine.ova
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