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jpratt_at_norwi
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ESX 4 Kickstart , disk partitioning

Hi, I am trying to update my "DR" (Disaster recovery) media/iso which

uses one ks.cfg in the initrd.img file to build out any of our 32 blade

servers onto based on blade server name typed at prompt.

worked to convert my ks.cfg to work with esx 4 using

, and the changes with initramfs etc, still had probs - then i see

there is a /root/ks.cfg in the system after manual install - but when

trying to "mimic" the install using parts of this file/changing script

via manual's instructions on what is deprecated, I seem to be able to

get further now, but still i am always unable to boot the server - i'm

fairly sure it's getting through the ks.cfg, it's just not loading

vmkernel - it gets to loading vmnix, then bombs on "Failed to load

VMkernel".

I suspect it is something not right about the partitioning, but i'm not

sure. it seems to be parsing my ks.cfg in the initrd file just fine

now, but unable to boot for some reason.

here's my kickstart file:

and here's a screenshot of the boot fail:

Does anyone have any good ks.cfg partitioning examples yet, or

any ideas whats going wrong here?i've not yet tried autopart either,

but that's on the list.

I should also note that I cannot type in the console at that failure point to be able to see, it's HP ILO2 if that matters)

thanks!

Jamie

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admin
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there is no --chroot option. There is only --nochroot. It chroots into /mnt/sysimage by default.

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mudha
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Hello,

can you share me your ks file for ESX 4.0, try to use ks.cfg file under root which you should be have once you installed and then use that file. let us know your findings. also as you said autopart have you tried that?

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jpratt_at_norwi
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Hi, I actually solved this yesterday - seems the kickstart options have changed quite a bit from the admin guide in 3.5->4.0.

I had posted my ks.cfg above on pastebin - after running with a default ks.cfg from /root/ after a manual install, I figured out the majority of my problem was that %post does not support '--chroot' option anymore, so I had to re-write the majority of the ks script.

I will post it in another pastebin link shortly once i've put out a different fire...

Thanks!

James

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teledataconsult
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Still stuck at the Failed to load VMKernel...

Can you post your boot "append" command line example?

I'm using a modified version of UDA to boot/deploy from.

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teledataconsult
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think I figured it out... was missing the following from the "append" commandline:

vmkopts=debugLogToSerial:1 mem=512M

jpratt_at_norwi
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Ha - I think you are correct - here is what I was just writing back to you:

i was using something like this:

old:

append vmware apic text ks=file:/ks.cfg ramdisk_size=7168 initrd=initrd.img ip=10.14.3.110 vm=192.168.0.110 host=rc2e1s1 local

new:

append initrd=initrd.img vmkopts=debugLogToSerial:1 mem=512M ks=file:///ks.cfg ip=10.14.3.110 vm=192.168.0.110 host=rc2e1s1 local

That part, and after I re-did my ks.cfg using the one left in /root after a manual install, I was able

to get it working.

my other problem was that I had to remove the %post--chroot , as apparently that does not work anymore either.

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admin
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%post scripts should run chrooted to /mnt/sysimage (where the installed ESX resides) by default. As in your pastebin, there is a --nochroot flag so scripts run in the installation environment.

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jpratt_at_norwi
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Have you tried this with ESX 4?

%post --chroot

does not seem to work at all anymore, at least for me, and the manual says it will not behave the same.

thanks

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admin
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there is no --chroot option. There is only --nochroot. It chroots into /mnt/sysimage by default.

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jpratt_at_norwi
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Sorry, my typo, it's --nochroot that is not working for me.

Strangely enough, either I had the wrong manual, or it's been updated, as I swear on my life the stuff about --nochroot wasn't in the manual the other day, and said that "post" sections will behave differently!(??) (Perhaps I am losing it. My bad. Back to testing! )

Thanks!

Jamie

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