Windows 2k3 Guest Install

[Dinty]

I am having touble installing Windows Server 2003 as a guest O/S in ESXi 3.5 update 4.

I have the guest BIOS settings adjusted to look for a CD first and have tried placing the CD in the ESX host and my remote workstation and neither has worked. I still get the guest O/S stating that no O/S can be found.

For using my remote workstation CD drive I tried to use the passthrough recommended setting put got an error message from VIC about needing to use Legacy Emulation mode. So I switched to the IDE emulation setting for the CD drive. I can hear the guest spinning up my drive to read it but it will not boot from the drive.

Any suggestions on how to get the guest O/S to boot from the Windows 2k3 disk?

[weinstein5]

Make sure the cd is configured so it is connected at power on - this is the settings for the VM in the VI Client -

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[Dinty]

It does not appear that that is a valid option for using the client drive. As a work around I have been sending the guest into the BIOS setup at startup in order to give me enough time to manually connect my local CD drive.

[DLeid]

Place a tick in the Host Device and the connect at power on should light up. then go to the Options Tab and highlight Boot Options and tick the Force BIOS setup. confirm it set to boot from cd first. adjudt boot delay if you want there also.

For this the OS cd should be in the host cdrom drive.

Try the guest os install again.

Confirm that the CD is not corrupted.

Consider using ISO images to build your virtual machines - much easier to manage to working with physical cds.

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[Dinty]

I tried using the host CD drives and they do not even spin on boot.

I created an .iso but that fails as well.

[RParker]

recreate folder with 8 character or less names. Folder AND file name. Win2k3/win2k3.iso

[DLeid]

Humm, unusual ?:|

I guess you have confirmed the OS cd and ISO are fine.

Did you test the CD/ISO on another machine.

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[Dinty]

Renaming the file and folder did not fix this issue.

[DSTAVERT]

When the CD is client connected you will need to press the Connect CD button in the VI client after the VM has been started. You may need to restart the VM (CTRL ALT INS) after you are connected inside the VM console to start the reread the CD.

[Dinty]

This is the error I get when I try and use my local workstation cd in the recommended mode. Any clues?

[Dinty]

I tried the ctrlaltins to reboot several times and this has not allowed the CD to boot. I also tried this with trying to boot from a local .iso

I belive the image is good since I am able to run the CD.

[Dinty]

To conclude, I believe this disk is not bootable.