| Scenario | Reason | |----------|--------| | | No outbound internet; you must bring the installer on a USB stick. | | Automated provisioning | Use a known‑good offline bundle for PXE/Auto‑Deploy or Kickstart. | | Version‑lock | You want to keep a specific ESXi patch level (e.g., 6.5 U1‑171r18) for driver compatibility. | | VCSA upgrade via “offline bundle” | The VCSA UI can consume a .tgz bundle instead of pulling from VMware’s repository. | | Custom driver/VIB addition | You can merge third‑party VIBs into the bundle before deployment. |
: These bundles are typically used for deploying virtual routers on hypervisors like VMware ESXi or KVM/EVE-NG . vmxbundle 171r18tgz link