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roelvanmeer
Asked: 2016-09-08 06:41:12 +0800 CST

Can you change the boot order of a VMware ESXi EFI guest in a config file?

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For VMware ESXi guests that are booted with a BIOS boot firmware it is possible to configure the boot order directly in the .vmx file of the guest, according to this VMware kb article, by specifying these options:

bios.bootOrder = "ethernet5,ethernet2,hdd,cdrom,floppy"
bios.hddOrder = "scsi2:2,scsi0:1,ide1:0"

Q: Is something similar possible if the guest is booted with an EFI firmware?

I know I can change the boot order by accessing the EFI setup screen, but I would like to have something that can be automated.

vmware-esxi

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Although I haven't found a way to directly change the EFI boot order, a workaround is to configure the EFI boot order from the GUI, and then create a backup of the vm.nvram file. Later you can restore the vm.nvram file from a backup that has the EFI boot order you need.

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