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J-H
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Installation of Windows Server 2008 RC0 and November CTP

Host: ESX 3.02 with all patches

I try to install Windows Server 2008 November CTP but the installation process stops at “Completing installation”.

It stays at this point and the only visible progress is the three points that the installer draws on the screen.

The ISO image is mounted in Virtual CloneDrive and the virtual DVD drive letter is connected in the VI client. I have the same issue with the RC0 build of Windows Server 2008.

Vmware.log contains the following entries:

Nov 22 18:38:10.524: vmx| VIDE CDROM: Emulating Inquiry response on raw drive

Nov 22 18:38:10.524: vmx| VIDE CDROM: Emulating Inquiry response on raw drive

Nov 22 18:38:10.525: vmx| VIDE CDROM: Emulating Inquiry response on raw drive

The client CD-ROM is configured as Pass through IDE.

In the past I was able to install the RC0 build without any problems.

The only change that I’m aware of is that I recently installed the ESX patches from November 15.

Is anybody able to install the Windows Server 2008 November CTP build or the RC0 build and how do you assign the ISO to the guest?

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3 Replies
Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

I've been able to install RC0 ok, but I'm only running 3.0.2 with no patches. In my case, I copied the ISO to my data store and then attached it to the VM.

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J-H
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I changed the configuration of the guest to use the ISO file on a batastore, but the installation stops at the same point.

Vmware.log now contains the following entries:

Nov 23 11:20:50.258: vcpu-0| CDROM: Mode Sense for Unsupported Page 0x1B

Nov 23 11:20:50.267: vcpu-0| CDROM: Emulate GET CONFIGURATION RT 0 start feature 0

...

Nov 23 11:20:50.270: vcpu-0| CDROM: Emulate GET CONFIGURATION RT 1 start feature 0

...

Nov 23 11:20:50.271: vcpu-0| CDROM: Unknown command 0xAC.

I thought that I should try to uninstall the patches of November 15, but according to http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_esxupdate.pdf it is not possible to uninstall ESX patches.

##

Can I remove patches from my ESX Server system once they have been installed?

The esxupdate utility does not support rolling back or removing any type of updates. You cannot remove

patches once they have been installed.

##

Any tips are highly appreciated.

The current situation is really annoying. In the beginning of the Windows Server 2008 / Longhorn beta program I had problems with the VMware tools related to the CDROM in the guest. Only the 32 bit version was working with the help of http://sti.epfl.ch/intranet/informatique/virtualisation/drivers-vista-rtm-esx.flp.zip (many thanks to Paul Giddens). Now I again have trouble with the x64 version…

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alhamad
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It seems to be a problem in your ISO image

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