3.5 Update 2 scripted install question...

[snoopj]

I've been pacing all over the place this afternoon trying to figure this out.

I'm working on a set of HP BL460c1 blade servers. I have a kickstart file located out on a NFS share (on a Ubuntu 8.04 server).

Now, it appears that I'm able to get to the NFS share to get the kickstart file. I've loop mounted the ISO and extracted the files onto the Ubuntu NFS server. Now, in my kickstart file, I am referencing the location for the NFS server.

nfs --server <IP address of NFS server> --dir /iso/ESX/3.5U2

Here's where it goes haywire. I see from my logs on the NFS server that the request has come in to mount the location to get the ks file. When it comes to mounting the location where the files are located, I get a message about "The directory could not be mounted from the server." I've tried from multiple Linux devices and I have been able to mount the location in question. I check the log files again and there is no log information about any attempt from the device in question. I mean, it was able to get it for the kickstart file, but when it comes to finding the files for installation, it fails miserably. I've also tried to do HTTP for installation line and the same thing happens. I can get to the kickstart file on HTTP, but can't get to the installation files.

I am at a loss here. Is there a way to check networking configuration when this fails like this? I show on my DHCP server (which is a Windows 2003 server) that I am getting an address (obviously, or the kickstart file would have failed to load).

The only other thing I can think of to add to this is this is what I put into the line when booting from the CD: esx ks=<IP address of NFS>:/iso/kickstart/<servername>.cfg

I am not adding any other parameters.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be happy to hear from you. Thanks!

--j

[JDLangdon]

I had a similar problem and it was because I edited the ks.cfg file on a Windows computer. The solution was to copy the ks file to a Linux box and run dos2unix against it.

________________________________

Jason D. Langdon

This space is for rent.

[eliot]

I use winVi, to edit unix files on windows, easy to use also (unlike normal vi)

http://www.winvi.de/en/

[snoopj]

I'll give this a whirl. I will mention that this is the same KS file I was using on a local CD and it was working fine. I was using EditPlus to edit the file and save it.

I'll try it out when I get into the office today and let you know the results. Thanks for the suggestions.

--j

[eliot]

EditPlus is usually quite well behaved with unix files actually, I use it myself.

[snoopj]

No dice. Still no request coming into NFS after getting the kickstart file.

Odd.

[snoopj]

Here's something of interest.

I believe the version of NFS that comes with ESX is NFSv3. I believe my server is NFSv4. I'm trying to mount the share on an existing 3.5 Update 2 box I built with the CD and it seems to stall out when mounting the location.

Although, I can't use this to explain why I can't connect to Apache (HTTP server) either. My apache logs do not show any incoming connection either.

Grrrrr.

[snoopj]

Well folks, chalk this one up as being an idiot.

For some reason, I believed that the network line in the kickstart file was only there to set the IP for ESX and not to be used for the installer. The IP I was setting was on a different VLAN and I needed to switch something over on the HP side after the build to get it working on that VLAN. Put in an address for the VLAN that I was using and away it went.

Again, my oversight in thinking that the IP address that I was adding wasn't going to be used for the install. Lesson learned.

--j