Slipstreaming with ESX4.1 ISO

[dplema]

Hi Folks!

I am in the process of trying to get some new Intel 10Gb drivers slipstreamed into the ESX4.1 ISO. I've found Patrick VanBeek's blog that shows how to do it in the version 4 of the ESX installer cd:

http://patrickvanbeek.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/slipstreaming-drivers-in-the-esx4i-install-iso/#comme...

Unfortunately, something missing from his blog post is the fact that TRANS.TLB is not on the 4.1 ISO. I've since asked Patrick about it and he's just not sure (follow the link above and scroll down to the comments).

So here are the issues:

1. ESX4.1 ISO does not have TRANS.TLB

2. I need to slipstream the latest Intel 10Gb drivers to make an unattended installation for many servers (either add or replace)

3. I cannot find any documentation from VMware that list how to modify the ISO and slipstream the files.

Any direction or help would be appreciated. For completeness sake, the Intel Drivers I'm looking to install are:

vmware-esx-drivers-net-ixgbe-400.2.0.84.9-1vmw.2.17.249663.x86_64

This would replace the driver that IS on the 4.1 CD now: vmware-esx-drivers-net-ixgbe-400.2.0.38.2.5.1-1vmw.0.0.260247.x86_64

If anyone knows how to slipstream the drivers I'd be all ears. Thanks in advance!

[marcus_31]

same problem here. howto slipstream new drivers into this image? i too have to integrate 10GB drivers into my esx image.

any ideas ?

[JCV]

Anybody have any good jumping off points for slip streaming drivers into and  unattended ESX 4.x (not ESXi) install. Would like to be able to slip stream our 10Gb nics. Currently use esxupdate --bundle. Thinking I can script that some how but would really like to get it slipped in to the initial install to not have to re-arrange nics after the install.

thanks for any help,

Jon

VMware ESX/ESXi 4.x Driver CD for ServerEngines BladeEngine 10Gb Ethernet Controller

2.102.404.0
Build Number	281453
Release Date	2010/08/12
Type	Drivers & Tools
Compatible with	ESX/ESXi 4.0, 4.1

[lamw]

Take a look at this article, it uses an unsupported VMware tool called vibddi found in VMware Auto Deploy appliance and may help - http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2010/11/how-to-inject-custom-drivers-into-esxi.html

[JCV]

That article is very helpful and informative…..however I was made aware of HP’s ESX iso which apparently have the drivers complied and seem to work flawlessly so far…..thanks for the idea and response though.

[MadMax1980]

Hello

Very nice Post.

it took me to the idea how to integrate a completely other Driver

i managed it like that:

- copied the new driver vmware-esx-drivers-net-be2net-400.2.103.377.0-1vmw.2.17.249663.x86_64.rpm      /VMware/RPMS

- i moved the packageData.pkl away.

- then i copied every rpm inside /VMware/RPMS to 4.1 Esx  /tmp/new

- copied createinstdepot.py  to /tmp

- Changed permission for py file

- ./createinstdepot.py new/

this creates a completely new packageData.pkl which you could place then under the VMWare/RPMS

the packageData.pkl is  Header-Info file

  i tested it right now, the rpm was installed succesfully.

So worked only after Reboot.

I Don't know how to integrate it for "Add Costum Driver" because he load up vmnix and theire he has some basic drivers. > this would be interesting to change also

Best regards

Max

[MrVirtual2011]

Hi there,

Thanks for this helpful discussion!

I have posted an extended manual describing how to integrate custom drivers in the installation media as well as in the installer itself, so it can be detected and configured during installation. It can be found here: http://tlindinger.cwsurf.de/.

I managed to use the created media for the use of a kickstart installation on an HP Bl460c G7 Blade successfully.

Kind regards,

Tobias

[peterr2]

Hi,

The link above appears to be dead. Is there an alternate link?

Thanks,

P.

[MrVirtual2011]

Hi Peterr2,

the link should work again.

Sorry for the late replay, but it took me a while to discuss the problem with my provider.

Kind regards,

Tobias

[peterr2]

Thank you.

P.

[Gladi8tor]

Hi, is this link still available? I tried to access it and got a 403 error..I could REALLY use it as I have to inject some drivers into ESX 4.1 update 3 iso.

Thanks in advance!

[MrVirtual2011]

Hello Gladi8tor,

Please try the following:

Adding custom drivers to ESX 4.1 installation CD

To add a custom drivers to the ESX 4.1 installation CD two major steps are necessary. In this case we will add the driver called “be2net“ to support HPs BL460c G7 Blades.

1. Download the driver. In the case of “be2net” it can be obtained from vmware.com

2. Extract the driver RPM package from the downloaded ISO image.

3. Add the RPM package to the VMware ESX installation CD. All the RPMs are located in a folder called VMware/RPMs.

This can be done using a ISO editor e.g. MagicISO. I recommend not to use PowerISO because it changes the MD5 hash of the image and the installer will detect it as damaged.

4. Add a line/entry for the additional driver in the following files:

• VMware/RPMs/TRANS.TBL (if the file doesn’t exist skip this)

• VMware/base/comps.xml

• Packages.xml

5. Delete the file VMware/RPMs/packageData.pkl; we will create a new one during the next steps.

6. Extract the RPMs folder and the file misc/createinstdepot.py from the CD to a machine running python.

7. Execute:

createinstdepot.py RPMs

This will create a new packageData.pkl in the temporary RPMs folder

8. Copy the newly created packageData.pkl back to the CD

The above steps have integrated the driver RPM into the CD and the installer will install the package during installation but will not detect the NICs itself. To have the installer itself detect the device we will have to add the driver module to the ramdisk containing the installer. This step is necessary because the installation of ESX will fail if no network card is found. If you try an installation using kickstart you need to have all nics detected by the installer as well, because otherwise it may mix up the numbering on next boot.

1. Extract the driver module (in this case: be2net.o) from the RPM package or the ZIP file contained in the driver ISO image. The file is packaged several times using different packaging formats. I managed this using 7-Zip because it can handle all the package formats needed.

2. Extract the pciids file (in this case: be2net.xml) the same way.

3. Extract isolinux/initrd.img from the ESX installation CD and copy it to a Linux machine.

4. Unpack the image:

gunzip < initrd.img | cpio –i -–make-directories

5. Copy the driver module (be2net.o) to the directory usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/ of the extacted ramdisk.

6. Copy the pciids file (be2net.xml) to the folder usr/share/hwdata/pciids/

7. Recreate the ramdisk again:

find ./ | cpio –H newc –o > initrd.cpio

gzip initrd.cpio

mv initrd.cpio.gz initrd.img

Take care not to include the original ramdisk in the new one. Move it away before starting with the lines above.

8. Replace the original isolinux/initrd.img with the one created.

Good luck and kind regards,

Tobias

Von: Gladi8tor

Gesendet: Freitag, 29. März 2013 03:50

An: tobias.lindinger@web.de

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Slipstreaming with ESX4.1 ISO

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