These instructions assume you have already set up a working netboot environment, complete with tftp server. What follows below is a doctored cobbler setup, so YMMV depending on how you manage your netboot environment. Note that running cobbler sync will clobber these files, so this is really just a temporary solution.
First, copy the contents of the ESXi 5.1 ISO to /var/lib/tftpboot/images/esxi5-x86_64
. This should look something like the following for ESXi 5.1:
[vince@cobbler tftpboot]$ cd images/esxi5-x86_64/
[vince@cobbler esxi5-x86_64]$ ls
a.b00 boot.cfg isolinux.cfg net_enic.v00 safeboot.c32 scsi_fni.v00 scsi_rst.v00
ata_pata.v00 chardevs.b00 k.b00 net_forc.v00 sata_ahc.v00 scsi_hps.v00 s.v00
ata_pata.v01 efiboot.img mboot.c32 net_igb.v00 sata_ata.v00 scsi_ips.v00 tboot.b00