Build ALL ESX Hosts from 1 .iso (cooked edition) works great - eee-up star

[admin]

Its quiet, its raining, its cold so had a few moments to spare and fancied a play around, wanted to build all my hosts using 1x VMware ESX Host .iso (3.5 Update 2) and integrate all kickstarts, I also wanted a bespoke screen (not in the attached jpeg though - as I don't want to give employers a fright), just really thanks to all who have posted various bits and pieces here and across the web. I managed to get the 1 .iso to build ALL servers including all the post script bits (VMotion enabled, additional vSwtiches, ntp, iSCSI, NFS Mounts, failover policies Blah de blah...)

Works on USB key good now too.

Cheers all

As Ringo Star would say, "peace and love, peace and love".

No more energy bill letters please!

[depping]

I did the same a while back, it took me some time to get things right... but it's worth the effort.

Duncan

Blogging: http://www.yellow-bricks.com

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[admin]

Worth it for sure for customers, makes life so easy for them --takes a worry out of deployment...

[Troy_Clavell]

good stuff!! I had to build 24 different .iso files recently with a different ks.cfg injected into each one. Care to share your setup? I have to build another 32 hosts here pretty soon and a do it all .iso would be very helpful.

[mikepodoherty]

We're upgrading 100 + 2.5 servers so any tools that we can build to automate the process will be greatly appreciated.

I have the manual process documented but haven't had the time to work on scripting it out.

[depping]

I usually use http based installs, a lot quicker and less error prone. manually editting an iso isn't my fav. hobby

Duncan

Blogging: http://www.yellow-bricks.com

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[admin]

Duncan I used Red Hat ES 4.0 it was painless, 2 hours work --setting up http/ftp or what ever servers seems like adding a additional element that may not be available for many companies and very change control driven for these guys, whats easier --attaching an .iso to an .ilo/RSA fat server/blade chasse, load .iso type esx whatever.. only one point of failure ..your network between the .iso and the server to be built - but eh God bless RDP to a local source repository

Regards ZippyDaMCT "Middle Name Duncan"

[admin]

Just done a surf... damn some companies charge alot of money for this ability, I mean alot -- is that right?