Nevermind, I've just realized my incredibly dumb mistake. I imported the OpenManage vib into my ESXi image and importing the PXE boot image using that causes the above error. I made a new image w/o it and it worked just fine. :smileycry: The perils of shortcuts.
On the other hand, not sure why EDA has a problem w/ this particular vib since booting directly off the iso works just fine.:smileyconfused: