reinstall esxi 4.1 - will it remove vm's

[cleanair]

I have an esxi 4.1 server that I can not get to tech support mode (says disabled by adminstrator), root password does not work. If I reinstall the esxi 4.1, will it remove all my vm's?

Thanks.

[AntonVZhbankov]

>If I reinstall the esxi 4.1, will it remove all my vm's?

If VMs are on local datastore - it is very likely. ESXi will format boot disk.

Solution is to install clean ESXi on USB flash.

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MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4, VMware vExpert

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[cleanair]

do you have a howto on installing to usb flash? Once I get it to flash, how do I revert back to the server?

[AntonVZhbankov]

>do you have a howto on installing to usb flash?

Install USB Flash to server, and select it as destination disk on ESXi installation, that's all.

>Once I get it to flash, how do I revert back to the server?

What for? Continue to work from flash

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MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4, VMware vExpert

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[a_p_]

I have an esxi 4.1 server that I can not get to tech support mode (says disabled by adminstrator) ...

Why don't you enable Tech Support Mode (using the DCUI or the vSphere Client)?

Are there any issues with enabling or did you just not do that yet?

see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1017910

André

[cleanair]

After trying several different things including installing ESXi on a USB, I ended up reinstalling ESXi 4.1 CD and running through the repair mode. When running repair mode, be very careful and read everything before proceeding so that you don't delete anything. I initially did it on a test box before doing this production server. When I tried the USB boot up it told me another instance was already installed and it wouldn't start up. Either way I didn't want to use the USB as my main boot drive because I wouldn't have the redundancy of my servers RAID array.

The repair mode installed everything and my VM was still there, but I lost all my network settings including iSCSI configuration. Once I got all my network stuff reconfigured, I then had to add the vmx back to inventory but everything is good now.

Tech Support mode wouldn't work either. it told me that Administrator had locked out that function (which I didn't) and apparently this is something taht 4.1 does as default as I found several discussions about this.

Thanks so much for your responses and your willingness to assist.

[Dave_Mishchenko · Accepted solution]

The repair installation essentially recopies the system partition from the install media so it wipes any configuration made to the host. It's pretty much the same as a new install except that it does not wipe any VMFS datastore on the install drive (unless you pick a drive where ESXi was not installed).

Tech support mode is disabled by default and you'll still get that error after the reinstall. You can enable it with the vSphere client, in the DCUI or with the vCLI / PowerCLI. To reset a lost root password see this - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Reset_root_password.php.




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

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[AntonVZhbankov]

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MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4, VMware vExpert

http://blog.vadmin.ru