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nordviks
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi will not boot a bootable guest OS media ore ISO. Goes directly to PXE boot.

Hi!

I have convinced my boss that WMWare is the way to go. But I have been trying to install 2 VM's for the last to days and only manageed the first. This is a 2003 advanced server 32 bit. I installed this successfully from a client PC wirh the WMWare client software, I used a few hours to acheve this, I cant remember what I did to manage this. Anyway I have used 2 days to try to install the second VM, a 2003 standard 32 bit. This is a list of some of the things I have tried:

  • Tried all of the sugestions I could find in this forum and other forums.

  • Tested that the medium is bootable.

  • Installing the guest OS from the host server

  • Installing the Guest OS from several clients-

  • Mounted the iso from a client PC.

  • Uploaded/mounted the iso directly to the ESXi Server.

  • Changing settings in the bios.

  • Adding a boot delay in ms for all of the above.

  • Adding a a second virtual cd.rom and mounting iso's and CD's to both client and host

  • tried almost all parameters and settings i could think of.

What is wrong with ESXi is it an alpha ore beta release? I have used VMWare Server 2.0 and it does not behave like this. If I dont find a solution for this problem today my boss will probobly give up on WMWare!

Please help!!!

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

Welcome to the VMware Community forums. Personally I prefer to use ISO images, so if you don't mind me just asking about that then

1) was the ISO image created from a copy of the CD you're trying to use and if so how?

2) does the ISO have a simple file name? i.e. windows.iso

3) when you select to use the ISO image, are you checking the connect at power on option?

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manishisarda
Contributor
Contributor

Use checkbox "connect at startup" in VM's edit setting

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If find it correct dont forgot to award the points

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nordviks
Contributor
Contributor

1) was the ISO image created from a copy of the CD you're trying to use and if so how?

- We have used the ISO image on several server installs in the past. I have so far used 2 different ones.

We always use nero in our compter repair shop, we install servers weekly, and 3 computers each day using ISO created with Nero.

2) does the ISO have a simple file name? i.e. windows.iso

- The ISO image contains 10 uppercase letters and one underscore.

3) when you select to use the ISO image, are you checking the connect at power on option?

- yes

I just got the message that we must do a ordinary server install, if I don't manage to install the guest OS in 2 days Smiley Sad

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nordviks
Contributor
Contributor

I have now tried to rename the iso to win.iso. Se screenshot of my settings. I can see from the bios that vm uses secondary master as ide device, so I use virtual device node 1:0.

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

You might want to just delete the VM and create a new one of you haven't done so already.

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