After Mike Laverick posted his experience with ESX Server and USB flash disks in another thread, I decided to figure out how to make it work.
Here's a quick rundown on setting up a USB flash disk (ie. pen drive, flash key, etc.) to install ESX Server.
Requirements:
\- You will need at least a 1 GB USB flash disk.
\- You must have
both
the ESX 3.x CD-ROM and ISO image handy.Steps Required:
boot.iso
file in the/images
directory on the ESX 3.x CD-ROM. Copyboot.iso
into a temporary directory on your hard drive.boot.iso
file to your USB flash drive. On my PC, it's theE:
drive.isolinux.bin
andupdatecd.cfg
files from the USB flash disk.isolinux.cfg
file on the USB flash disk tosyslinux.cfg
syslinux.cfg
file and add the keyword usbto the end of every line that begins withappend
. Here's what the file should look like when you're done:syslinux
.zip file into another temporary directory on your hard drive.cd
command to navigate into thewin32
directory. For example:cd C:\temp\syslinux-3.36\win32</p>
9. Now, run the syslinux program to apply the boot loader and boot sector to the USB flash drive:</p>
syslinux -s e:
( On my PC, my USB flash drive is mounted as drive E: )
10. Finally, copy the ESX 3.x ISO image onto the flash drive:
+copy c:\iso\esx-3.0.1-32039.iso e:\ +
11. Confirm that your USB flash drive contains the following files:
boot.cat
boot.msg
initrd.img
snake.msg
splash.lss
vmlinuz
syslinux.cfg
esx-3.0.1-32039.iso
12. You're all set! Unplug the USB flash drive, configure the BIOS on your server to boot from USB accordingly, and boot 'er up!
13. The ESX installer will detect the USB device and whatever SCSI / disk controllers you have. When the installer asks you what the installation source will be, choose
Hard Disk
.Paul
Mike,
I could have sworn that error message (for me, in the past) is supposed to say "...does not appear to contain ESX Server 3.01 CD-ROM images." Any chance you're using files from a RH distribution?
(Just a shot in the dark...)
Paul
That's interesting....
The version that I'm using is your patched version which I downloaded from:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~plalonde2/hdstg2.img
Which was meant to fix the python error...???
Could be the wrong file is on the webserver???
Regards
Mike
I will check on it this weekend. PLEASE don't send me an invoice for all your billable time if this ends up being my bad!
Paul
Well, I've had some progress...
I used mkisof to create the ISO... so it looks like WinISO isn't so hot after all...
However, I still have an error... get past all the install questions... and then it fails. I think I have the same anaconda errors as others have:
I'm on a HP Proliant DL385 G1. I have two other servers but they don't support from USB key. So I can't test to see if this server specific...
I've attached my error message from the ILO to this post...
Regards
Mike
I will check on it this weekend. PLEASE don't send
me an invoice for all your billable time if this ends
up being my bad!
Paul
Paul, no worries mate... without your input we haven't got this far... so your efforts are appreciated... at some stage I would like understand the python error (in a rough way to explain to others) but that's for later...
Regards
Mike
Any progress to report Paul...
I've been reviewing this thread and looking back on the process generally... The common line appears to be that different USB sticks work differently... So I am wondering if this is hardware specific.
You said you have used to USB sticks successfully. I wondered if you could post here the exact[/b] sticks you use. I would be happy to go out and actually buy them just to test this... the theory being is if I can reproduce a working system from the same type of USB device - then it must HW specific?
Regards
Mike
I've got it working using the steps that Paul outlined and an Imation 4G drive. It runs a kickstart and installs on a compaq DL385 G1 though I still have some other weirdness that I'm trying to track down where it doesn't seem to be applying all of my kickstart changes that work with the floppy and/or cdrom method.
do you have any commands after the %post as I can't get these to work.
No. That was the weirdness that I was referencing. I thought it was just me 😃
I've got it working using the steps that Paul
outlined and an Imation 4G drive. It runs a kickstart
and installs on a compaq DL385 G1 though I still have
some other weirdness that I'm trying to track down
where it doesn't seem to be applying all of my
kickstart changes that work with the floppy and/or
cdrom method.
Cool... Can you post the precise make & model of the flash drive?
Did you get to the bottom of your kickstart woes...?
My %post section (which I shameless nabbed from brianhouse.net) works just dandy on my PXE method. So I can't see why it wouldn't with the USB stick. If I could just get past these Anaconda errors...
It does sound like a hardware issue. Paul mentioned earlier about the installer wanting to "protect" the system. Perhaps different sticks have different write-protection methods which would indicate why some behave differently from others???
Regards
Mike
I tried a different usb drive ( sd->usb adaptor actually ) and it didn't work so I stole a 4g flash drive from an intern that was on vacation to test it out. The model number is 'HMDS-04GC' but a google of that doesn't yield a result. Most of the little crap that we order comes from CDW, so I found one that looks the same here:
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=941709
I'm using the same kickstart that I have been using to integrate into CDROMs and have also used via floppy, but the %post section isn't being executed, I'm looking into why.
Ok good. (well not good)
I was pulling out my hair as to why they would not execute.
My problem may have been a brain fart, it looks like I have windows-style formatting on my ks.cfg file. I reformatted it and am re-installing the host now. I should know in the next 10 mins or so.
How can you tell that it is windows formatted?
transfer it to an esx box and run "cat -ev ", if all the lines end in ^M then it's formatted windows style.
BTW, I got it all working now.
/me dances a little jig
This is pretty sweet, now I have all my disaster recovery on a usb drive with boot menus and all. My kickstart installs all my patches and sim agent from an ftp repository and does all my configuration completely hands-free.
Paul, do you mind if I re-use some of you work on my site?
I bought another 1G flash drive on the way home today from Fry's for $12 USD. I don't think the model matters much, I had the same success with this one. Mike if you want me to load up everything on a flash drive and ship it to you drop me an email at dominic@vmprofessional.com.
Go for it!
And thanks for offering to help Mike out... I've been trying to find the time to sit down in the lab and go through it all again, but it ain't happening because I'm freakishly busy lately.
Paul
I bought another 1G flash drive on the way home today
from Fry's for $12 USD. I don't think the model
matters much, I had the same success with this one.
Mike if you want me to load up everything on a flash
drive and ship it to you drop me an email at
dominic@vmprofessional.com.
That's for the offer Dom, but as you might expect I'm more interested in getting the set-up nailed so I can confidently put it out for others. I want to include it in the book along side a PXE appliance I have been working with... but if I can't get it to work, I won't want to put something in the book that I'm 100% confident will work...
If its not the USB stick itself like a hardware issue - Perhaps I am doing something wrong in the process. Attached is a PDF version of the instructions I've documented so far. I bought WinISO to create the custom ISO, which for me didn't work. But mkisof did work...
I'd appreciate anyone who has got this working to check my instructions in case I am doing something wrong....
Regards
Mike
My problem may have been a brain fart, it looks like
I have windows-style formatting on my ks.cfg file. I
reformatted it and am re-installing the host now. I
should know in the next 10 mins or so.
I've had this myself. I created my kickstart file using the VMware scripted tools. Then I cut & pasted this into PXE server appliance I have been working on. What I didn't know is that this server was formating its files as "DOS Format". Symptoms included my %post section not being processed correctly. My %post creates a file with the cat > command, and then tags itself to the /rc.d/local file to be executed on first boot. This is because esxcfg commands need a VMkernel loaded to function...
Other symptoms include these cat > files not being correct format and have odd characters in the file name like filename_r and when edited with nano filename_^m. I knew what the problem was but took me ages to find it. I've seen this before in editing scripts on a windows PC but forgetting use "Text" in WinSCP to transfer them to ESX. If you use binary then these ^M characters get added to each and every line.
I thought the > cat process was the problem, but ACTUALLY, it turned out to be the KS script itself. I only realised this when I went to edit the KS file with nano. It popped up with \[DOS Format] in the menu. Blink and I would have missed it.....
Since the same problem bedevils license files - I've taken to using the COS at all times to edit or create files. If this is impossible I used Wordpad. Notepad always screws up license files....
Regards
Mike