How do I boot from my cdrom?

[PHSAdmin]

I have a Windows 2003 server, and VMWare GSX, 1.0.1.

I have created my Windows 2003 Standard Edition VM session.

How I am trying to boot to my cdrom so I can install Windows 2003 Standard to my VM session.

I have, verified my cd is good and bootable.

Pressed, control alt ins. while booting then hitting escape so I can select the cdrom.

created an ISO image and pointed my cdrom setting to that.

copied the ISO image to the C drive and pointed my VM cdrom at that.

So far, nothing I have tried allows me to boot to a cd while my VM session is starting.

[Krishna__]

Did you enable connect at power on option for the cdrom for guest os?

[bister]

While the VM is powered on it is enough/vital to enable the "connected" option for the virtual cd-rom drive.

[PHSAdmin]

Yes, that is set. Did not help.

[PHSAdmin]

Yes, that is set. Did not help.

[Krishna__]

and your iso is located on your windows 2003 host server and is mapped in the vm settings ?

[PHSAdmin]

yes

[Baz]

Open a console to the vm, then power it on and press the F? key to go into the bios. Check that the CD is highest in the boot order list

[czatts01]

I'm having a similar problem with esx 3.0.1. When trying to boot from a CD, I get the "PXE boot from AMD ...". It doesn't matter what order I set up in the BIOS. Also, it doesn't work by hitting esc and selecting the CD from the boot options screen.

[Len_Messing]

I have the same issue. My Guest will only boot to PXE, even if I have the nic set to not be connected at power on.

[mmoo9154]

I'm having the same problem. To be specific, I'm trying to boot from an ISO image that's stored on the VMware Server's C: drive. I've validated the ISO image through every other tool I can find.

(Incidentally, the server machine is located in a remote colo facility, so popping a physical CD in or out is impractical.)

Other possibly relevant info:

VMware GSX serever v1.0.1-29996.

Host OS: Windows Server 2003 SE 5.2.3790sp1

VM COnfig:

Memory: 256MB

Hard Disk (IDE 0:0)

CDROM (IDE 0:1) Using image C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.FONJAXNET\Desktop\WinXPPro-SP2-OEM.iso

Ethernet: Bridged

Processors: 1

Boot Order:

CDROM

HD

Net

Removables

It doesn't seem to matter if I remove the network adapter or not.

[crazex]

This sounds similar to an old problem that ESX had with certain DVD/CD-R drives. Take a look at this link, it may or may not work for VMware Server,

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=429698&#429698

-Jon-

[mmoo9154]

Crazex,

Thanks for the link. It looks like that was a hardware issue. I'm trying to use an ISO image that's on the host machine's existing harddrive.

If you're still thinking this sounds like a hardware problem, can you elaborate since I'm not seeing it yet.

-Mark

[mmoo9154]

fwiw, it looks like my ISO image was bad. I tried a Ubuntu Live CD image, and the VM booted fine.