Create a folder C:\Esxibuild

Download to C:\Esxibuild
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.7U3b Bundle (not the ISO).
https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI67U3B&productId=742

Download the Realtek Drivers:
https://vibsdepot.v-front.de/wiki/index.php/List_of_currently_available_ESXi_packages
(For this one, I used the net55-r8168-8.045a-napi-offline_bundle)

Here is what the files look like:

Download and install the VMware PowerCLI
https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?productId=614&downloadGroup=PCLI650R1

Open powershell. Got to the folder C:\Esxibuild in PS.

Add the VMware Modules for Powershell:

Get-Module -ListAvailable VM* | Import-Module

Check Modules:

$env:PSModulePath.Split(‘;’)

Import Modules:

Get-Module -ListAvailable VM* | Import-Module

Find the build information. Open the compressed file for the Esxi bundle you downloaded: c:\esxibuild > ESXi670-201912001 > metadata > profiles. There should be 4 profiles. Copy the path for the next commands.

Change your paths to match.
run:

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot "C:\esxibuild\net55-r8168-8.045a-napi-offline_bundle.zip", "C:\esxibuild\ESXi670-201912001.zip"

Get-EsxImageProfile

New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile ESXi-6.7.0-20191204001-standard -name ESXi-6.7.0-20191204001-standard-RTL8111 -Vendor Razz

Set-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile ESXi-6.7.0-20191204001-standard-RTL8111 -AcceptanceLevel CommunitySupported

Get-EsxSoftwarePackage | Where {$_.Vendor -eq "Realtek"}

Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile ESXi-6.7.0-20191204001-standard-RTL8111 -SoftwarePackage net55-r8168

Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile ESXi-6.7.0-20191204001-standard-RTL8111 -ExportToIso -filepath C:\esxibuild\VMware-ESXi-6.7.0-8169922-RTL8111.iso

Now, there should be an ISO to burn.

Other sources: https://www.sysadminstories.com/2018/08/adding-realtek-8111-driver-to-vsphere.html

See : https://www.ivobeerens.nl/2018/01/02/esxi-root-account-locked/
and

https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-6-0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vcli.examples.doc%2Fcli_manage_users.9.5.html

Log Files:

/var/log/auth.log – All events related to authentication for the system.

In addition to the above, every Virtual Machine hosted on ESXi will have corresponding VM log files called vmware.log recording events related to machine activity, system failures, hardware changes, migrations, status and so on. To view the log file, SSH to the ESXi host and navigate to the datastore on which the VM folder resides.

The path to the log file should be similar to /vmfs/volumes///vwmare.log.

There are some adjustments you can make to the log rotation and logging options for a VM. Disable or enable logging: Set the logging value in the VM’s VMX file to false or true respectively. You can do this by editing the VM’s settings (VM Options -> Advanced -> Edit Configuration) in vSphere Web client as shown.

Tools and utilities is available on ESXi, – busybox executable

How to wget from a ISO source:

Load 2012 into the data store

Set up the backups:

http://wiki.r1soft.com/display/ServerBackup/Documentation

Connect your NAS to your master VM. All other VM’s will connect to the master to backup there. Your VM’s will need to connect to your private network so each VM will need two NIC’s.

The SAN is attached to the hypervisor (ESXi) and then you can add a virtual disk to the machine that is going to act as the backup server.

IE, create a datastore to be able to then allocate the diskspace to the backup server VM:

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-7EB0CE06-02DD-4B31-85C7-E54993CC06DC.html