Help installing Windows 7 on VM

[danw76]

I have installed ESXi 5.1 on a new server and migrated my VM's from VM Workstation to the server.  I access these VM's through Vsphere client.  I've just created a new VM on the server using the client, and want to know the easiest way to instal Win 7 when I don't have a CD ROM on the server?

I assumed I'd be able to plug in my external HDD, with my Win7 ISO on and the VM would be able to boot from this.  It doesn't seem to pick it up though.  Can anyone help?

Dan

[danw76]

I've read that the easiest way would be to put that Win7 ISO on a datastore and then configure the VM to boot from the datastore, however, I can't get the Win7 ISO on the datastore.  I assumed that I would be able to power on a current VM that is connected to the datastore and drag the ISO from the external HDD onto the datastore.  The current VM doesn't pick up the connected external HDD though.

[DavoudTeimouri]

Hi,

Open your VM's console and then click on CD-ROM icon, you can mount your ISO file from anywhere.

Local disk, external devices and also your ESXi host datastores.

[NagangoudaPatil]

Upload Windows 7 ISO image to one of the data store, mount ISO image via data store and start installation.

[admin]

Use the USB option corresponding to client device just beside CD-ROM on vSphere client....

[danw76]

I've tried both of the above, but no luck.  I've managed to get the ISO onto a datastore, I also have the ISO left on the external drive, which is connected to the computer that I use to connect to the server through vsphere client.

I powered on the VM, it starts to search for something to boot from but doesn't find, so I clicked the 'Connect to USB' button and navigated to the ISO on the external, but nothing happened - it still doesn't start to boot.

As this failed, I restarted the VM, to try to boot using the 'Connect to CD ROM' and navigate to the datastore where the ISO is.  When I do this, the ISO is not found - the drive shows as empty.  It can't be empty, because when I access the datastore from another virtual machine (which has the datastore added to it), I can see the ISO.  Is the ISO maybe invisible because I have allocated the entire datastore to the other VM and that the datastore needs to be independent for the new VM to see files on it?  Also, on top of this I noticed that when I click the 'Connect to USB' button, the VM is still trying to connect via USB from my previous attempt even though I have powered off the VM.  How can I stop this process?  I would have thought powering off would stop these processes.

Any other ideas why I may be having these problems?  At this rate I am thinking of creating this VM in VM workstation and migrating it, but don't really want to have to do this out of principle as I have a new server with ESXi installed and want to learn to use it.  It also takes along to time to migrate VM's.

[BenLiebowitz]

Edit the settings for the VM, click the CD/DVD Drive and then click Datastore ISO and browse to the ISO on the datastore. 

[danw76]

I have tried that as well, but the ISO is not found.  In fact, when I browse for 'All Files' (as opposed to just 'ISO image'), only the VM file (of the VM that is linked to datastore) is found.  Doesn't this mean that the ISO must be contained with the VM itself, that's why it can't be seen?  I managed to get the ISO on the datastore, by connecting a USB external HDD to the VM.  The VM detected the external so I could then drag the ISO onto the Virtual Disk created on this VM.  Maybe this means the ISO file is only available to that VM?  How can I enable my new VM to see the ISO on the datastore? I must be going about this the wrong way.