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inboundcs
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How to integrate VMware Tools on ESX3i

I signed up for a 60-day trial of ESX3i (v3.5). I have it up and running but when I try to right click a virtual environment to install VMware Tools, it says that the .iso image is missing from /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/windows.iso. How do I integrate the VMware tools iso images to that directory? Remote Command Line? First off, I cannot even find the CD that has the VMware tools iso images....

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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fejf
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How did you install esx3i? If you use the ESX3i v3.5 (u1) installable iso-image it installs several partitions spread on about 750MB diskspace. The biggest partition is the one with the vmware-tools images.

--

There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and the rest. And those who understand gray-code.

-- There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and the rest. And those who understand gray-code.

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fejf
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How did you install esx3i? If you use the ESX3i v3.5 (u1) installable iso-image it installs several partitions spread on about 750MB diskspace. The biggest partition is the one with the vmware-tools images.

--

There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and the rest. And those who understand gray-code.

-- There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and the rest. And those who understand gray-code.
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inboundcs
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I signed up for a 60-day evaluation and I did download and install: ESX Server 3i U1 Installable Version 3.5 Update 1 | 82664 - 04/10/08 (216mb)

I can't connect to console or anything to inspect the partitions... I just know that when I right click to install vmware tools on the guest vm I get that error about missing the windows.iso file. Is there a way to inspect the filesystem/partitions from the Infrastructure client? I didn't see that it was optional to not install the vmware tools images during the install either?

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fejf
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That seams to be the correct iso. There's a tar-file on this cd which contains the partitions/files which are installed - that's the way which you can use with a linux-os to see what gets installed because esx3i doesn't have a supported login feature. But you can search the forum for the unsupported login - prehaps that can help you.

On what disk did you install it - was it at least 1gb in size?

--

There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and the rest. And those who understand gray-code.

-- There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and the rest. And those who understand gray-code.
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inboundcs
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Yes, on this testing server there is only (1) 500gb drive which is also being used as my datastore (configured after esx3i was installed through the infrastructure client). I was beginning to think that esxi did not have the vmware tools iso images included because it is so stripped down from regular esx server (200mb instead of 500mb). There was no option to include or declude them during the install process so I wonder how they could be missing if they were included? I thought maybe you had to add them after the fact via remote command line.

How would the 216mb install image take up 750mb of disk space installed? Maybe you are reffering to esx server and not esxi server? Can anyone confirm that the vmware tools .iso images are included in esxi 3.5 u1 installable? I appreciate your help.

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fejf
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No that's one of the few times that I know what I'm talking about ;). The ESX3i Installation consists (roughly) of the following partitions:

4MB + 2*50MB boot-partition + vmkernel + root-FileSystem Partitions (don't know exactly what's on the two partitions at the moment)

120MB VMKcore

500MB VMware Tools ISOs

-> ca. 750MB

But back to your problem - perhaps the easiest way is to reinstall your esx3i if that's possible.

--

There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and the rest. And those who understand gray-code.

-- There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and the rest. And those who understand gray-code.
Dave_Mishchenko
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They are included with update 1. If you type in unsupported at the console hit enter, you'll be prompted for the root password. Then enter the command find -name *.iso and you should get five iso images found. Everything in the install CD is compressed so 200 MB has everything you need to run ESXi 3.5 including the vmware tools images and the VI client. The tools ISO images take up about 99 MB of the install CD, the VI client 55 and ESXi itself about 29 MB.

inboundcs
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I re-installed in the meantime but to double check I followed Dave's advice. But I couldn't get the "unsupported" at the console to work until I hit ALT-F1, then I typed unsupported and <enter> and was able to log in. I found isoimages and now everything is working perfectly. I believe somehow the first installation was botched (don't ask me how) but a re-install of esxi has solved the problem.

Thanks for all of your help.

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