At the time of this writing, there were no manufacturers selling the ESXi embedded. However, there were reports of agreements with major vendors like Dell and HP that each company would have several products available in Q2 of 2008. In my work with the good folks at Dell, they assured me it was coming soon but that further tests and design work had to be completed to ensure the security of the USB flash device on the internal port. Dell, like other manufacturers, puts all server designs through rigorous tests, including earthquake tests. Until they are confident that the products will withstand these rigorous tests, they have opted not to simply place a USB flash disk inside the system without some type of locking mechanism to ensure its placement. Perhaps a solution will have been devised by the time the book is published.

The installation files for ESXi Embedded are not available for public download; however, ESXi is available for download. It is suggested that only the OEMs will have access to the files necessary for building the persistent storage devices with the thin hypervisor installed. In best estimation, OEMs will be provided with a .dd file or an image file that can be extracted to the storage devices. For those who have been given access to the .dd file, it is possible to use dd.exe or WinImage to extract the installation files to a USB flash drive. The result is a bootable image of ESXi embedded onto the device. 

Based on my conversations and work with Dell in writing this chapter, Dell will add an internal USB connection in the next generation of the Dell PowerEdge server line.

At the time of this writing, ESXi Embedded was still not an option for purchase from the Dell website. Again, according to Dell the release of the product as an embedded feature will not occur until Dell has completed a period of rigorous testing that ensures system functionality and performance in even the harshest of conditions.