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9 Replies Last post: Nov 5, 2009 11:02 PM by Andreas Maurer  

No windows.iso etc. on ESXi 4 server started from PXE posted: Nov 5, 2009 8:38 AM

Click to view Andreas Maurer's profile Novice
Andreas Maurer
7 posts since
Apr 28, 2005

Hello,

did anybody managed to include the windows.iso, vSphere Client etc. on an ESXi 4 sever whitch is booted from a PXE source. Any Idee welcome!

Andreas

Re: No windows.iso etc. on ESXi 4 server started from PXE

1. Nov 5, 2009 8:47 AM in response to: Andreas Maurer
Click to view DSTAVERT's profile Virtuoso
DSTAVERT
2,418 posts since
Nov 30, 2003
Use the unsupported console and do a find / -name *.iso
It is possible that the the iso's do exist but a link was not created.

Do an fdisk -l from the console as well. See if you actually have that partition.

Re: No windows.iso etc. on ESXi 4 server started from PXE

2. Nov 5, 2009 8:54 AM in response to: DSTAVERT
Click to view Andreas Maurer's profile Novice
Andreas Maurer
7 posts since
Apr 28, 2005

Thanks for your reply. The symlinks are created fine but the complete target partition is missing. I only extracted the gz/tgz/vgz files from the first (in real the fith) partionen.

I have no idee to include files from the third (eight) partition using syslinux.

Andreas

Re: No windows.iso etc. on ESXi 4 server started from PXE

3. Nov 5, 2009 10:27 AM in response to: Andreas Maurer
Click to view DSTAVERT's profile Virtuoso
DSTAVERT
2,418 posts since
Nov 30, 2003
The vsphere client can be downloaded from the VMware website. You can open the install image (the DD file) with winimage or mount in linux and pull out the various ISO files. Put the ISO images in a directory on your datastore.

Re: No windows.iso etc. on ESXi 4 server started from PXE

4. Nov 5, 2009 10:36 AM in response to: DSTAVERT
Click to view Andreas Maurer's profile Novice
Andreas Maurer
7 posts since
Apr 28, 2005

http://communities.vmware.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif Its not a problem to extract the ISO etc. Just like extracting the boot files http://communities.vmware.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif

I want to provide the images and the client just the same way a full ESXi install do.

I hope that some other had a better idee to integrate the files into the TFTP server.

Re: No windows.iso etc. on ESXi 4 server started from PXE

5. Nov 5, 2009 1:01 PM in response to: Andreas Maurer
Click to view DSTAVERT's profile Virtuoso
DSTAVERT
2,418 posts since
Nov 30, 2003
You must remember that PXE boot is not an install. You could perhaps have the files in a folder on your datastore and add some scripting to /etc/rc.local that updates / creates the links to the files. Otherwise you may need some digging

Re: No windows.iso etc. on ESXi 4 server started from PXE

6. Nov 5, 2009 2:01 PM in response to: DSTAVERT
Click to view Andreas Maurer's profile Novice
Andreas Maurer
7 posts since
Apr 28, 2005

Thank you for spamming this thread. Has anybody usefull informations concerning my issue?

Frei nach Dieter Nuhr: wenn du keine Ahnung hast einfach Fresse halten ...

Re: No windows.iso etc. on ESXi 4 server started from PXE

7. Nov 5, 2009 2:12 PM in response to: Andreas Maurer
Click to view DSTAVERT's profile Virtuoso
DSTAVERT
2,418 posts since
Nov 30, 2003
I was just about finished setting up a TFTP server to see if I could figure something out for you. Your response deserves nothing.

Re: No windows.iso etc. on ESXi 4 server started from PXE

8. Nov 5, 2009 2:13 PM in response to: Andreas Maurer
Click to view Rumple's profile Master
Rumple
1,264 posts since
Jan 6, 2005

Here is your useful information

Putting ISO files into the vmimages location is no longer a supported location for storing vmimages.

The correct process is to provide the ISO files to the users using a client side accessible mount point or put the ISO's on a datastore (be it vmfs volume or nfs mounted datastore).


Re: No windows.iso etc. on ESXi 4 server started from PXE

9. Nov 5, 2009 11:02 PM in response to: Rumple
Click to view Andreas Maurer's profile Novice
Andreas Maurer
7 posts since
Apr 28, 2005

Thanks for helping.

My preferred method of deploying the Client tools to a fresh installed VM is including them into the setup process. They are installed unattended directly from our deployment server.

I only want to provide the tools in the "original" location to get the "Install/Update Client tools" menu entry working. Without the ISOs in the right location you get an error message that "/usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/windows.iso" is missing.

It´s just to get the PXE boot method to perfection. It was never easier to install or upgrade a new/existing server.

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