ESX 3.5 guest on ESX 3.5

[markuk]

Before you all start shouting at me "What the hell are you doing" ... I am only doing this to create an installation guide for other user at work.

What Guest operating system should I use to get a ESX 3.5 guest working as a VM?

At the moment i am getting a message about network drivers can't be found.

many thanks

markUK

[cmanucy]

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you can accomplish this with VMWare Workstation (run ESX as a guest).

However, I've never done it, and I couldn't tell you which OS to pick

----

Carter Manucy

[markuk]

I don't have a machine to install workstation on .... looking for a quick fix by using an esx server I already have up and working.

thanks for the reply

[TiBoReR]

Never tried it but if it has to work, it will be with Linux --> Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

[markuk]

thanks ....... not worked

[RParker]

So what machine are you using for ESX? Replace ESx with Windows 2003, put VM Server (Not workstation, server is free) and you can put whatever OS you want. For your purposes, it will work better.

[markuk]

I have tried all the Lunix options ...... I think I am going to have install it via workstation on a trial license.

[jjkrueger]

To resolve the network adapter issue, you would need to make sure you use a 64-bit guest (any will do - the guest type is used to determine the available network adapters and to tell ESX what VMware Tools iso to mount) so you can present the E1000 network driver to the VM. ESX doesn't have drivers (for the SC or VMKernel) for the AMD PCnet32 adapter presented to a standard 32-bit guest.

Outside of that, I believe ESX has drivers for the LSI Logic SCSI adapter.

Good luck!

-jk

[markuk]

argh! now trying on workstation but having the same issues

[TomHowarth · Accepted solution]

read this document from xtravirt it outlines how to install ESX as a Workstation 6 guest

Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[markuk]

Looks good!!! thanks for the link!!!

[thekleek]

This is my first post - I hope it helps

Here's how I accomplished this - Successfully

H/W Platform: Lenovo T60

H/W CPU: Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T5500

H/W RAM: 2GB

VMware Workstation Version: 6.0.0,45731

Guest OS selected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 64-bit - (BTW, this option selected 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) as NIC)

ESX Server Version installed: 3.5.0,64607

Below (Between -VMX FILE START- and -VMX FILE END-) is a copy of the VMX file

As you can see, I'm using NAT

I've shown the manual modifications between ### Xtravirt modification START and ### Xtravirt modification END (Note: Due to formatting issues, I've placed a /period/ at the start of those lines)

-VMX FILE START-

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "4"

numvcpus = "2"

scsi0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"

memsize = "512"

scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.fileName = "VM-ESX-01.vmdk"

ide1:0.present = "TRUE"

ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"

ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

floppy0.autodetect = "TRUE"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

ethernet0.connectionType = "nat"

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"

.### Xtravirt modification START

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

.### Xtravirt modification END

ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"

svga.autodetect = "TRUE"

mks.keyboardFilter = "allow"

displayName = "VM-ESX-01"

guestOS = "rhel5-64"

nvram = "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 64-bit.nvram"

deploymentPlatform = "windows"

virtualHW.productCompatibility = "esx"

tools.upgrade.policy = "useGlobal"

.### Xtravirt modification START

monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "TRUE"

monitor_control.vt32 = "TRUE"

.### Xtravirt modification END

ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"

floppy0.present = "FALSE"

isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "TRUE"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:92:74:5a"

uuid.location = "56 4d 4b f6 03 e0 1d 53-26 43 6d 49 df 92 74 5a"

uuid.bios = "56 4d 4b f6 03 e0 1d 53-26 43 6d 49 df 92 74 5a"

scsi0:0.redo = ""

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

tools.remindInstall = "TRUE"

-VMX FILE END-

Have fun...

...thekleek

[Datto]

thekleek -- have you been able to get a VM to run from your ESX 3.5 virtualized ESX server? it seems me and several others get a kernel panic whenever a vm is run inside a virtualized ESX 3.5 server where the virtualized ESX 3.5 server is running under Workstation 6.0.x. The single difference I'm seeing on your setup is your running the ESX 3.5 VM as a 64 bit redhat guest.

Datto