How to create VM and install RHEL as guest OS?

[juliuslerm]

Sorry if the answer is rather obvious and/or has already been answered before.

I'm new to this forum and VMWare.

Is there a documented way of creating a new VM and installing RHEL as a guest OS?

I need to work with a remote ESXi server on bare metal, on which I need to create multiple RHEL guests.

The RHEL VMs need to have their networking customized so as to use one of a range of previously allocated IP addresses.

Doing PXEboot via DHCP is not an option.

I saw some examples on how to create a new VM and registering it using PowerCLI, for instance.

But they only go as far as having the VMs registered.

I have not found an end-to-end example that includes a full installation and configuration of a RHEL guest.

I can see the *.vmx file supports defining an ide drive, to which a RHEL ISO file can be assigned.

I understand how that works, but the part that's missing is how can I provide a different kickstart file for each RHEL guest, to assign a different host name and network settings.

Any comprehensive examples available?

Thanks,

Julius

[LucD]

Since you are doing this on a standalone ESXi, you will not be able to use the "clone" feature I'm afraid.

An alternative is to use the procedure I describe in my HL Tools – Part 1 – Clone a VM without vCenter post.

To set the IP address of the new VM, you could use the Invoke-VMScript cmdlet to run a bash script inside the guest OS.

Another alternative, is to create different Kickstart files, one for each VM, and then start the VM with this Kickstart file attached (for example through a floppy or CD).