esxi/network-firstboot-vlan

Set the ESXi software install acceptance level.

Sets the VLAN tag ID (VLANID) for the installed ESXi instance on first boot.

Note that there are three possible places you may want/need to set a VLANID:

  1. At PXE boot time for the kernel - use kernel-options and vlanid=N syntax
  2. During the installation phase in the kickstart process - use the Param esxi/network-kickstart-vlan
  3. After final reboot, to transition to a "production" or similar network, use the Param esxi/network-firstboot-vlan

In many cases, the provisioning network may or may not be a VLAN tagged network, which may very likely be different from the final installed ESXi production use case network configuration. On firstboot, you can specify values separately from the installation phases to support network transitions from install to production use.

If you set a different value for the firstboot stage VLANID, you must also ensure the network settings are correctly reflected for the new VLAN. Your options are to use DHCP or Manual modes in this case (see esxi/network-type Param). Convert would not be correct in this case as the provisioning network is likely to not be the same IP address space as a production network when changing VLANIDs.

Valid values as defined by VMware for this field are from 1 to 4095.