ESX Server Installation - Basic Question

[mgconno]

I have zero experience with VMWare and have been tasked with installing ESX 3.02 Server on an HP Proliant DL580 G4 server. The server has no OS. I downloaded the software (esx-3.0.2-52542.iso) from the VMWare site onto my windows laptop. I am not familiar with this "iso" file type, but noticed it was a win archive, so I extracted it to a directory. I then burned it to a DVD and inserted it in my server DVD drive, reset the server BIOS to boot from the DVD drive first. When I start the server I get an error "non-system disk or disk error". Looking at the expanded archive I am not sure how the boot process would work. None of the files seem to jump out at me as the file that would start up the install. Nor do I understand how the server knows which file it should run. I suspect there is something I need to do that I am not aware of. I have searched through 90 or so pages of the knowledge base and haven't seen anyone else having this problem, so I must be making a fundamental mistake. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

[jonathanp]

this is a CD-rom image... you do not have to extract... you can burn this with a software like winiso, nero or whatever.

Just find a software that burn iso, burn it on a cd, or dvd but this can hold on a cd and boot from there.

If you still got a hard disk error, it is bad boot sequence or bad dvd-rom drive.

Coud also be you blank dvd...

Regards.

[jesse_gardner]

.ISO is a CD/DVD image file. Yes, you can extract the contents from it, but the key idea here is "boot sector". Copying those files back onto a CD won't create a bootable CD. You must burn the ISO image directly to CD.

There are several programs to do that. Roxio and Nero have the capability I believe, just look for something like "open image file" or the like. My favorite utility is "ISO Recorder". It's a Windows power toy that adds right-click functionality to burn ISO's. You can also create ISO's from an existing CD or even a folder on your hard drive.

[mgconno]

Thanks. I'm up and running.

[mgconno]

Thanks. I'm up and running.

[mgconno]

Thanks. I'm up and running.