Install ESXi 4.1 to Flash Drive

[RonF01]

I need help please.

New Dell T410 with enterprise DRAC with 8gb SD card. Initial perception, from Dell server guys, we that I could install VMWare to the SD card on the DRAC and get it to boot and work. Not going to happen as SD card on DRAC is not for that purpose.

Ok - so I purchase 2 USB flash drives, one 8gb (PNY) and the other 4gb (Verbatim) and begin to install 4.1 to either of these flash devices.

It fails exactly at 70% with the error - cannot write to partion. It does format the flash drives and it does copy files there and label the flash drive.

It does not matter what port, internal USB or external USB and either flash drive, it fails exactly at 70%.

I downloaded the ESXi 4.1 from VMware and have a license for it. I've checked the MD5 hash which matches. I've create the bootable CD from the downloaded ISO about 7-8 times with many different programs but all fail.

What am I doing wrong and can you help me please? Dell support is no help.

Thanks

Ron

[golddiggie]

I installed ESXi 4.1 onto a 4GB SanDisk Cruzer (Micro) flash drive without any issue at all...

Check the bios to make sure it's set so that USB (flash) drives are fully supported (as hard drives)... I would also make sure that the bios is properly set for virtualization so that you don't run into issues there...

For S&G's, if possible, try installing with another system onto the flash drive(s) and see how that goes.

VMware VCP4

Consider awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[RonF01]

Thanks for the reply. I've checked about everything but thank you for the input. Never know when you can simply overlook something. I have "chatted" with Dell 4 times and physically spoken with techs 3 times. They are good about the basics. I just cannot believe this cannot be solved.

I'm currently looking to install it with VMPlayer to the flash drive. Last night I tried on my 32bit laptop and got an error msg about the 64bit ISO file and the reduced functionality. I do have a 64bit Win7 PC that I am going to load VMPlayer on to build the image.

I need help here... why does it fail in the exact same place everytime - 70%. This should be so simple. If you read about install problems, most of the replies are to install to flash media. However, i cannot find anything specific on the web about it failing at 70%. I should have bought it from Dell embedded but according to sales, the T410 may not have that option.

Thanks again.

[DSTAVERT]

Another install option is the VI 3.5 install method. Extract the install image and use dd to copy it onto the flash disk. I don't have an ISO file handy so I can't give you directions but a search in this community will turn up direction.

[golddiggie]

Check the bios settings of the server... Check all the settings in the virtualization category as well as in the execute disable listing(s)...

I wouldn't use the VMware Player for this. Better to just boot the PC you have (with the 64 bit processor) and install to the flash drive directly. Although, it's still far better to install using the system where it will be used.

PM me the service tag for the T410 so I can look at the configuration (as it shipped from Dell)...

VMware VCP4

Consider awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[RonF01]

Thanks again for the replies.

The service tag of the T410 is DBH0MN1.

I will search for the VI3.5 instructions, too and see what I can do with that. Here's also what Dell said can be done pasted below. I need a Windows solutions however...

1. Get the VMware ESXi 4.1 ISO image from VMware.com.

2. Open the image. On my mac, I just click on the image and it opens it for me. On Linux you could do a loop back mount:

mkdir /media/ISO

mount -o loop VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.1.0-260247.x86_64.iso /media/ISO

If you have Windows, I’m sure you can use your favorite search engine to find a way to do it, but the rest of this tutorial is in Linux.

4. Now get a USB stick. You need to partition a large enough windows 95 image and make it bootable. I do this through fdisk:

fdisk /dev/sdc (or whatever it shows up as)

d (delete all partitions)

n # new partition

p # primary partition

1 # 1 is the partition number.

1 # the first cylinder

+300M # the size

a # toggle bootable flag

1 # make partition 1 bootable

t # change the type

1 # of partition 1

b # partition type W95 FAT32

w # write it out

5. Now you need to format it:

mkfs.vfat -n BOOT -F 32 /dev/sdc1

6. Now we need to use syslinux and make it bootable. I do this on Linux like this:

syslinux -s /dev/sdc1

dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sdc # note that this is sdc not sdc1

7. Mount the USB stick and copy all the files to it:

mkdir /media/USB

mount /dev/sdc1 /media/USB

cp -a /media/ISO /media/USB

8. Now you have to get rid of the isolinux stuff:

rm -rf isolinux.bin

mv isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg

9. At this point you should be able to umount the USB drive and stick it in a server and boot from it and start the installer. The problem is (in my opinion) is that the Installer is hard coded to look for the CDROM. So you will error out saying that it can’t find the installation media. This is pretty lame. But that’s ok because I want to automate this anyway. So the answer is we make a kickstart file that can tell it where to go. So let’s edit the syslinux.cfg and add a kickstart file. We add these files to /media/USB where our USB is mounted.

The modified syslinux.cfg file:

Here we simply add the ks=usb argument. This tells it to use kickstart and that the kickstart file is found on the USB drive.

default menu.c32

menu title VMware VMvisor Boot Menu

timeout 80

label ESXi Installer

menu label ^ESXi Installer

kernel mboot.c32

append vmkboot.gz ks=usb --- vmkernel.gz --- sys.vgz --- cim.vgz --- ienviron.vgz --- install.vgz

label ^Boot from local disk

menu label ^Boot from local disk

localboot 0x80

The Kickstart file (ks.cfg)

My simple kickstart file (ks.cfg) just looks like this:

vmaccepteula

rootpw cluster

autopart --firstdisk --overwritevmfs

install usb

network --bootproto=static --ip=192.168.70.76 --gateway=192.168.70.1 --hostname=sumavihv --device=vmnic0 --nameserver=192.168.70.1 --netmask=255.255.255.0

10. There, now you’re done. Unmount the USB key, Put it in the server and it will install ESXi4.1 from the USB key without any prompting. Fun in 10 easy steps!

This seems silly to me to have to do all this. I thought VMware we supposed to be easy and portable, thus a USB key...:)

Thanks again

[RonF01]

Here are the VMPlayer steps given to me:

1.Download VMware Player (it’s free and it rocks!)

Of course VMware Workstation also works.

2.Download ESXi from VMware here

3.Install VMware Player (next / next / finish)

4.Create new VM and connect to ESXi iso

5.Insert a USB flash drive

6.Boot from the ESXi ISO image

7.Connect the USB device to the VM and select “mass storage device”

8.Select the USB drive when the “Select a Disk” screen is shown

9.Next, Next, Finish

10.Now your USB drive is ready to go

Keep in mind, although you install ESXi there’s no server name or IP-address assigned to the installation. This is a generic USB install which can be used in any server or easily be cloned. But then again why would you clone it when you can install it in less time.

and then this site for installing vsphere to a flash drive... if you want to look:

http://www.virtualpro.co.uk/2009/05/24/vsphere-esx4i-on-a-usb-key-pen-drive/

All these came from Dell reps which is amazing in itself that Dell does not have a document to provlde or at least I have not found it. I just need to get to the correct Dell tech who's actually done this before. I'm working on that.

Thanks

[DSTAVERT]

I would not publicly post potentially sensitive information (your Dell service tag) on a public forum.

I will search for the VI3.5 instructions, too and see what I can do with that. Here's also what Dell said can be done pasted below. I need a Windows solutions however...

1. Get the VMware ESXi 4.1 ISO image from VMware.com.

2. Open the image. On my mac, I just click on the image and it opens it for me. On Linux you could do a loop back mount:

mkdir /media/ISO

mount -o loop VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.1.0-260247.x86_64.iso /media/ISO

. . . . . . .

The old install method was to extract the install image (xxxxxx.dd) file and then copy it to the flash disk. For Windows you can use winimage or the Windows version of DD.

This is for creating a USB installer not installing to USB. The second method does look like it would work for an install. I have used the VMware Player/Workstation method to install when I had issues directly installing to USB. It is also useful for creating extras for use in the datacenter or for testing (keep different versiions, builds etc for testing).

[golddiggie]

I would not publicly post potentially sensitive information (your Dell service tag) on a public forum.

That's why I wanted it as a PM (Private Message)...

I do see that the server came with four 146GB 15k rpm SAS drive... Why not just install to that?? You should be able to use the PERC 6/i controller to build an array and give a small chunk of it over for the ESX/ESXi install (like ~10-20GB)... I've not done that, since I've used two drives mirrored (RAID 1) in all my hosts so far, for ESX/ESXi to reside upon... If you're looking to put VM's onto the local drives, how were you going to configure the array? I would have Dell walk you through setting up the four drives so that you can have a segment for ESX/ESXi to live on, and the balance for a datastore...

VMware VCP4

Consider awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[RonF01]

The drives are all in a RAID 10 array. I can do the hard drive or I could install a small SATA drive into the unit. It appears that USB was the best option and since its not working, I want to know why and what is wrong. I've done it this way in the past so I'm stumped.

The server will host 2 VM's, SBS 2008 plus Win2003 for Term Server. I will split the diskspace accordingly. The system also has 2 NICs.

Thanks

[golddiggie]

If you have the cabling to add more drives, then I would go with a pair of SAS drives (smallest you can get, GB wise), mirror them, and install there. Go for at least 10k rpm drives too...

Or dig through the entire bios setup to find which freakin setting is boneing you...

I would also plan on getting another dual port NIC if I was you... Split the management network traffic over both NIC's (one port each) and do the same for the VM traffic... That way you're protected in case you have either network controller/card fail on you... Dual port NIC's (Intel Pro/1000) should be under $200 from pretty much any reseller/VAR you have lined up... Having the redundancy is worth every penny...

VMware VCP4

Consider awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[RonF01]

I wanted to update this should it help others and thanks to the ones that responded. I very much appreciate your time.

The problem turned out to be solved by simply using a USB CDROM device to install the ESXi 4.1 to the USB flash drive.

The USB flash drive is installed to slot 1 on the system board. (This T410 has 2 internally)

I came up with this solution totally by luck. I tried everything you can think of on this, with many chats and support calls to Dell plus this great forum and of course, internet searches. What lead be to try this was the problems others were having with CD Drives - specifically people mentioning that they had gotten around CD problems.

Anyway, with the USB CDROM device, ESXi installed in about 5 minutes as it should...

Thanks to all again.