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Bhanta
Contributor
Contributor

Vsphere 4 automated build

Hi,

I have done alot of reading around the topic of automating vsphere builds but unfortunetly i am having abit of difficultly implementing an automated build within my company. As a result i would be very greatful if somebody could assist me and offer some advice on what i am doing wrong and why the problem is arising. Here is my setup:

1 physical server with 6 nics (2 general prod network, 2 service console, 2 vmotion) - i have performed a manual install on this box and it is working fine (ks.cfg also generated).

i would like to setup an automated build for a second server which is of an identical spec (expect obviously the nics mac addresses is going to be different).

what i have done is installed the ftp service on a seperate windows server 2003 sp2 box and created a local windows account. I then copied the original ks.cfg from the original server which was manually built to this win2k3 box into the ftp folder. I have updated the network details in the ks.cfg to reflect the second server which i want to build.

i know ftp access is working ok as i can login to the win2k3 box from the vsphere server which i built manually and get the ks.cfg file

The problem comes when i try to do the build for the second server....i press f2 at the esx prompt on the second server and enter ks=ftp:///ks.cfg i dont actually specifiy which account to connect with i.e the local account which was created earlier on the box which runs ftp.

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

Try copying your ks.cfg to a USB stick.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

for us, we prefer to inject the ks.cfg files into the ESX4 ISO, then burn that to a DVD. You can also edit the isolinux.cfg file, and set a delay, and therefore all you need to do is just arrow down to the file in question. Our kickstart(s) start with the name of the ESX server.

Below is a snip from the isolinux file we use

LABEL Install_hostname
menu default
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img vmkopts=debugLogToSerial:1 mem=512M quiet ks=cdrom:/hostname.cfg

also, a good resource for building the kickstart itself can be found at

http://blog.laspina.ca/ubiquitous/automating-vsphere-esx4-host-installations

or

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40_u1/vsp_40_u1_esx_vc_installation_guide.pdf

Finally, be careful with how you call the kickstart, the process has changed quite a bit from VI3

Hope this helps

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Bhanta
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

I will try incorporatng the ks.cfg file into the iso but i dont think it is even get as far as trying to read the ks.cfg file from the ftp address.

As i stated the second server also has 6 nics and i am getting a "No cos nics have been added by the uesr" error message.

I have even tryed specifiying ksdevice= of the the nic allocated as the service consloe nic

Is there anything special you have to do when automating a build for a server with more then 1 nic????

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Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

would you attach your kickstart?

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Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

also, when hitting F2, your command looks like the below

append initrd=initrd.img vmkopts=debugLogToSerial:1 mem=512M quiet ks=ftp://<servername>/ks.cfg

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Bhanta
Contributor
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Please find attached my ks.cfg file - i have removed some specific details such as ip address, hostname etc

FYI i have also tried the steps detailed on the following website http://blog.laspina.ca/ubiquitous/automating-vsphere-esx4-host-installations - which describes how to setup a http based repo....but that doesn't work either.

The command which i am running at the esx splash (boot options) screen is as follows (note we dont have a dhcp server accessible to the vpshere server which i am trying to build)

initrd=initrd.img mem=512M ksdevice=vmnic2 ip=:8088/esx/4.0/ks.cfg

.

.

.

ERROR File connection failed. Made 3 attempts

.

.

.

ERROR installatin aborted

I trying to look through the IIS logs but can't see why the file can't be obtained.

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Bhanta
Contributor
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Sorry, i was being a wolly....the "install cdrom" line didnt help in my ks.cfg file - i changed this to "install url http://:8088/esx/4.0" and the build seems to get a little further. It now fails with:

error: A swap partition is required to use ESX

error: no "/boot" partition found.

error: A '/' (root) partition was not specified for the server console virtual disk. The service console can not boot without a '/' partition

ERROR installation aborted

As i mentioned before the ks.cfg which i am using is taken from the 1st server which was built manually....as a result i thought the paritioning info would have been ok to use? Any idea on what needs to be changed inorder to resolve this problem?

Your help is much appreciated

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Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

i've made some changes to hopefully work for you. I left your partitioning sizes the same. I've also copied a snip from ours. I think the problem is the ' ' around your partitions.

Snip from my ks.cfg

# Clear partitions
clearpart --firstdisk --overwritevmfs
##############################################################
#Partitioning
part /boot --fstype=ext3 --size=1100 --onfirstdisk
part storage1 --fstype=vmfs3 --size=17146 --grow --onfirstdisk
part None --fstype=vmkcore --size=180 --onfirstdisk
##############################################################
# Create the vmdk on the cos vmfs partition.
virtualdisk cos --size=15946 --onvmfs=storage1
###########################################################
# Partition the virtual disk
part / --fstype=ext3 --size=5120 --grow --onvirtualdisk=cos
part swap --fstype=swap --size=1600 --onvirtualdisk=cos
part /var --fstype=ext3 --size=4096 --onvirtualdisk=cos
part /home --fstype=ext3 --size=2048 --onvirtualdisk=cos
part /tmp --fstype=ext3 --size=1024 --onvirtualdisk=cos
part /opt --fstype=ext3 --size=2048 --onvirtualdisk=cos
#########################################################

Hopefully this works.

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Bhanta
Contributor
Contributor

Still no joy im affraid....one thing i did notice in the esx_install.log file was the following:

warning: http://M<A"

i have no idea what the above is reffering to.

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Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

I would like to recommend a local install. Inject the ks.cfg into an ISO and mount it, or burn to a DVD and see what happens.

You got further before, there errors previously, I believe were just syntax errors in the ks.cfg file.

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Bhanta
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

just to keep you updated, i had to update the partitioning as follows:

  1. Clear partitions

clearpart --firstdisk

#Partitioning

part /boot --fstype=ext3 --size=1100 --onfirstdisk

part storage1 --fstype=vmfs3 --size=9208 --grow --onfirstdisk

part None --fstype=vmkcore --size=110 --onfirstdisk

  1. Create the vmdk on the cos vmfs partition

virtualdisk cos --size=8208 --onvmfs=storage1

  1. Partition the virtual disk

part / --fstype=ext3 --size=5000 --grow --onvirtualdisk=cos

part swap --fstype=swap --size=1204 --onvirtualdisk=cos

part /var --fstype=ext3 --size=2000 --onvirtualdisk=cos

however the build now stops at the main esx install screen and i have to specifiy my options (eg network settings, time zone, keyboard , storage device settings etc. Its as though the settings in the ks.cfg file has been ignored completely????

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Bhanta
Contributor
Contributor

Hi all...i am still experiencing issues with trying to do an automated build for ESX4 Update 1 using the http based repo method. As a test i built a server manually and then copyied the ks.cfg file to my iis web server. however when i try to rebuild that server i get the "user has added no COS nics" error message. Aswell as the "The remote server responded with an HTTP Error 401: Unothorized while requesting...ks.cfg" File connection failed. Made 3 attempts...cannot open file. And the "no route to host" - i have tried pinging my iis server and it works fine.

at the esx splash screen i have tried entering the usual ksdevice=vmnic2 and even ksdevice=, ip= netmask= etc etc but no luck

Any ideas or suggestion for what else to try??? are there any other logs i can try to look at which may help?

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