Installing Server Core Edition of Windows 2008 on ESX

[tostao]

For those unfamiliar with Server Core it is a command line only version of Windows Server 2008 (formerly Longhorn). I have been trying to install this on ESX 3.0.

On the GUI version of Windows 2008 server, VMWare tools must be installed to get the NIC working. Server Core however is command line only. VMWareTools is a GUI installation so this is not an option for Server Core.

The workaround is to transfer VMWareTools (contained in a file called windows.iso) from your ESX server to a local drive. This can be done using Winscp. Use Virtual Center to mount the windows.iso file as a CDROM drive in the Server Core VM.

The driver files are located in \Program Files\VMWare\VMWare Tools\Drivers\VMXNet\w2k of the windows.iso file.

The command used to install the drivers is

C:\Windows\System32>pnputil -i -a vmxnet.inf

Microsoft PnP Utility

Processing inf : vmxnet.inf

Successfully installed the driver on a device on the system.

Driver package added successfully.

Published name : oem2.inf

Next check the installation of the driver. Vmxnet should be displayed near the end of the list.

C:\Windows\System32>driverquery

ws2ifsl Winsock IFS driver Kernel 18/04/2007 04:52:40

vmxnet VMware Ethernet Adapte Kernel 22/04/2006 23:13:11[/b]

You can then enable remote access of Server Core with the command.

netsh advfirewall set allprofiles settings remotemanagement enable[/b]

To disable the firewall

netsh advfirewall set allprofiles firewallpolicy allowinbound,allowoutbound[/b]

Tostao

[veggy]

Hi,

Thanks for the information.

I tried your steps but the vmxnet VMware Ethernet Adapter didn't appear in the driverquery list until I had done a pnputil -a -a on the vmware-nic.inf as well.

After I had done this everything was working fine.

regards,

Vegard

[peetz]

Nice, thanks for sharing this!

Is there an easy way to also install the rest of the VMware tools package?

\- Andreas

[fontyyy]

Dead easy, click "install VMware Tools" like you would normally, all this really does is put the VMware Tools "CD" in the CD drive or the VM so just type d: and run setup.

The GUI does run, well it did in Server Core Longhorn Beta 2 anyway.

[tostao]

Are you sure you are not mixing up Standard Windows 2008 with the Core version?

Core does not come with a GUI apart from Task Manager and the login screen. All that you see when you log in is the command prompt.

In response to the earlier question I haven't looked into installing the rest of the vmware tools on Core.

[TomHowarth]

if server core comes with Task Manager could you not just click new task and run Explorer????

not tried it yet so just throwing it out there!!!!!

[tostao]

I was at a demo and of Server Core by a Microsoft Evangilist. He posed the same question and attempted this for the audience's benefit.

It comes back with the 'explorer.exe is not recognized as an internal or external command' error.

[TomHowarth]

ah well, there goes that thought process.

must get a VM of that going soon to have a play.

[bcdouglas]

Running setup from 😧 willcause the GUI VMware installer to come up.

[VMSE]

The other way this can be done - or I should say, should be able to be done is msiexec /i <path to vmwaretools.msi" /qn this should install silently with no UI. The other way is you can use WMI scripts to install from a remote computer. These can be found in MS ScriptCentre on Technet.

[VMSE]

Sorry that should read msiexec /i are not required, just the full path and name of the MSI.

[tostao]

Yes, I read that on a blog somewhere too recently. Its a quicker method.

[jrr001]

I could use some help with the install.I have been struggling to get this working in VMware workstation 6.0.1 or even ESX 3.0.2.

Using the ISO I have downloaded several times 6001.16659.070916-1443_amd64fre_Server_en-us-KR1SXFRE_EN_DVD.iso

I keep getting stopped with the error cannot open required file (d:\sources\install.wim) issue. There are many posts about this and maybe a bad burn of a cd and such but I am using the actual ISO.

Have you heard of any issues with this?

My understanding is we must use the 64 bit release for server core and I am aware of the bios settings changes.

[continuum]

If you got issues with CD/ISO use daemon-tools on a WS6 win-host.

Also I don't understand this talk about getting vmxnet installed 0 why not simply use a e1000 ? - works without drivers