An administrator is tasked with deploying several VMware ESX hosts in a new VMware environment.

The VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Deployment Guide and the vSphere 9.0 Installation and Setup documentation describe the standard manual ESXi installation workflow. The steps are as follows:

Boot from installation media: The host is started from the ESXi ISO image, either via physical media, virtual media through iLO/iDRAC, or PXE boot.

Select target disk: During setup, administrators select the disk or device where ESXi will be installed.

Configure management network: After installation, the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) is used to set up basic network parameters for the management interface (IP address, DNS, gateway).

Set root password: A secure root password is set to complete the initial setup of the host.

The documentation makes it clear that these steps form the foundation before the host can be discovered and commissioned by SDDC Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation.

Option A is incorrect because the VCF Installer is not used for installing ESXi; it is used for deploying management domains and workload domains.

Option B includes “Join vCenter,” which happens after commissioning, not during installation.

Option D is incorrect since vCenter Server is installed later, not during the ESXi manual setup.

Therefore, the correct stages of manual ESXi installation are: Boot media → Select disk → Configure management network → Set root password.