ESX deployment appliance v1.05

[brugh]

https://solutionexchange.vmware.com/store/products/esx-deployment-appliance-eda

ESX Deployment Appliance (EDA) is a small and easy to use appliance

that makes deploying ESX servers a breeze. It has a very intuitive

web-interface that can configure and deploy dozens of ESX servers in

minutes. It has a script-builder that will allow any admin to create

%post-scripts that will do most anything one needs to get the ESX hosts

up and running! Even if deploying with RDP/Altiris or the UDA, this

script-builder can help setting those up very quickly.

[dmaster]

thanx for the tip about the usb minihub i will check it out.

[avlieshout]

I just took a quick look at the EDA 0.85. It looks very good.

Is there any way I can just copy and paste my own ks.cfg file?

I also like to change the kickstart parameters. Is there anyway where i can change those?

I am used to use the UDA and developped a complete script that uses only one ks.cfg for all my servers.

[brugh]

you can post anything that comes after the %post statement into the edit box and it works like you're used to. you can check the result by clicking the 'ks' link behind the server host definitions.

all other parameters are controlled by the interface and should give you all the flexibility you would normally need. if you need something changed in there beside that you'll have to dig into the ks.php script in /var/www/ks on the appliance itself.

[unreal2]

Hi Brugh,

Any luck in resolving the netimg2 error ?

We want to deploy 20 ESX hosts, so I really would like to get it working.

The appliance is running on a VMware Workstation right now, connected to a fysical switch with spanning-tree on.

Now the ESX hosts can PXE boot from the appliance, I can see the PQR screen and preconfigured system ID's.

Starting the installation progress, I can see for a few seconds it's trying to determine the domain and IP address.

Right after this, the error "Unable to retrieve ....../netstg2.img" appears....

Resolvable ? Workarounds ?

Kind regards, George

[DCTony]

yeah, it's just with 14 pages it takes awhile to find what you are looking for. I'm moving my hosts to another switch to see if that solves the problem.

[brugh]

netstg error is usually caused by the autosensing of the switches/network cards. make your that portfast is on. if you wait 30 seconds and hit enter a few times, does it continue?

[brugh]

yeah, the thread is getting a bit long. perhaps i could summarise a few of the common issues in the quick-start guide. that would help looking for them

as for your issue, usually, when it can't find the ks file it's a VLAN issue or your esx server ip addresses are in a different range than the appliance. that should set you on the right track

[johnwilk]

I downloaded and imported the vm into workstation originally to test which went fine but when I uploaded it to my virtual infrastructure I couldn't get it to start.

As our datacentre is over 100 miles away, I wanted to use the appliance as a vm local to the infrastructure so what I ended up doing was exporting the workstation version vm in OVF format and importing it into VI which worked perfectly.

You may want to think about providing the appliance in OVF format for portability. Just a thought

[rnotaro]

I'm having the same problem, I checked the nic bios and vlans are disabled. I even tried a crossover straight to the server from my laptop.

I'm at a loss at this point.

[brugh]

that is actually not a bad idea at all it's what they made that for. i think i'll do that

[brugh]

connecting servers to a client infrastructure can be a pain. usually a plain hub works best but even then, the server's negotiations may take too long. you could try setting it fixed to 100 full or negotiate only on 1gbit and see if that works better. should be solvable

[racerzer0]

Brugh,

Do you have any other recommendations for getting my server to connect to your appliance when VLAN tagging is present on the port of the server? I've enabled port-fast and configured the native VLAN to be the same as the network for my EDA. I still cant get my server to see the EDA. Unfortunaly I don't have the option of reconfiguring the switch ports everytime I have to do an ESX build.

BTW.. it works great when vlan tagging isnt there... I can build my server in about 10min!!

[DCTony]

ok, I know there has to be an easy way to do this. I'm trying to use EDA on a Dell 2950. I want to be able to keep the Dell diagnostic partition on the drive. How do I keep the install from wiping this out. On a manual install I can change the bootloader to partition and keep this, but changing mbr to partition in the KS doesn't allow me to boot to that partition.

[brugh]

sounds like the setup is right. trunkport, portfast, native vlan==eda vlan, should be good. does it work at all? does it get a pxe message? does it stop on the netstg2? or the kickstart?

[racerzer0]

No.. I'm not getting anywhere.

[brugh]

what the defauls script does is clear all partitions. but you dont have to do that. there are many more options to handle partitioning. check out for a complete list.

[rnotaro]

Mine usually die on netstg2.img

What does that mean the problem is?

[brugh]

check out the switch configuration one or two pages back in this thread. does it look anything like your setup? what kind of hardware are you using?

[rnotaro]

If I try to get this to work in Workstation it dies on NETSTG2.IMG as well

Also, is there a way to have the connect interface be different than the interface serving out DHCP?

[brugh]

netstg error is usually a spanning tree or slow duplex detection. there's some recommendations a few posts back. can you check if those apply to your situation?