This is a walkthrough of installing ESXi 8 fresh on my poweredge r720, I am using a custom dell image from the VMware site, and I am using the force option to install ESXi 8 as my hardware is considered old.
Download dell custom image
Once downloaded the ESXi 8 dell custom image use Rufus to convert it to a usb bootable drive and insert it into the server .
Otherwise if you have IDRAC you can attach the iso there.
Go into bios boot manager to boot it from the USB drive, F11
Select BIOS boot menu
Select where you inserted your usb drive.
Push enter on the installer
Push enter to continue
Push F11 to accept agreement
Select the drive you want to install ESXi 8 on
Select your keyboard layout
Enter the password you want to use for root account
Push enter
Push enter to force the unsupported installation of ESXi 8
F11 to install
Remove usb drive and push enter
Go to the BIOS boot manager
Select BIOS Boot menu
Select the drive you installed ESXi 8 on
Push F2 to customize system
Type in the password and push enter
Go to configure management network and push enter
Go VLAN and push enter
Put in your management vlan and push enter
Go to IPv4 configuration
Select Set static ipv4 and type in IP address, subnet mask and default gateway and push enter
Select DNS configuration and push enter
Select use the following dns server and type in dns ip address(s) and fqdn of esxi host.
Push enter
Push Esc
Push Y to restart management network
Select Test management network and push enter
Push enter
Push enter
Push Esc
Go to a browser and enter FQDN of esxi host
https://esxi-mon-00.vmware.local/
Enter credentials
Un-tick join and click ok
All done, don’t forgot to enter your license key so it doesn’t expired after 60 day
You can now add the host to vCenter