Cannot Install Windows 2012 Essentials on ESXi 5.1

[m4rky]

I have been trying to install Windows Server 2012 Essentials on my ESXi box and I just can't get it to work.

My physical machine is a HP MicroServer N40L with 8GB ram.

I have installed VMWare onto an 8GB USB pen drive and the 250GB disk that comes with the Microserver is used to store the Virtual Machines and Disks.

I have three other drives (2Tb, 1Tb and a 0.5Tb drive) that will be used for data storage within my VMs.

I have setup a linux based VM (VortexBox) that is running fine.

Now I am trying to setup my second VM which is Windows Server 2012 Essentials.

I have created a VM that is based on:

     Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit (as I have heard the Windows 2012 doesn't work that well)
     3 GB Ram

     100Gb disk
     E1000 NIC

Now the installation process gets to the "Updating and preparing your server" part it sits at 100% and nothing happens.

If I Ctrl-alt-del I can get to the task manager and kill setupmon.exe and I get the desktop but I cannot do much as (ie open the dashboard) I get messages saying you need to setup Windows 2012 Essentials first.

I noticed that the network was not connected so I sorted that out by entering the IP gateway and then disabling/renabling the network.
Then I go a message that a driver was missing and that I should install VMWare Tools. So I did this.

Then I rebooted and ran SetupMon.exe manually as it did not automatically start. Now it has got past 100% but shows an error:

It was suggested (on a Microsoft forum) that the VM is not seeing my NIC properly.

Any ideas?

[maishsk]

Welcome to the forums.

First check that you have the most up to date version of ESXi.

2 things I would then try.

1. Set the vm to Windows 2012 - and not Windows 2008 64 bit
2. Once that is done - you should change the NIC to E1000E or vmxnet3

Also look at this KB 2006859

[m4rky]

Thanks for the reply,

I have VMware ESXi 5.1.0 build-799733 and I am pretty sure I am all patched up. I only installed this ESXi server last week.

I will double check the patches in VMware GO later.

I did see the KB article you reference but I ignored it as it says it's only for pre release Windows 8/Server 2012 whereas I am installing the full release.

Does the "Windows Server 2012" now work? I did read that it didn't work and that you should use "Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit"

The KB article says that only the E1000 or E1000E will work in 2012/8. So I'll have a go with the E1000E unless there has now been a fix to get vmxnet3 to work?

[m4rky]

Thanks for your advice maishsk,

Changing the VM settings to "Windows Server 2012" allowed me to use the vmxnet3 virtual NIC.

With these settings in place Windows Server 2012 Essentials installed fine with no problems.

Thanks

[maishsk]

Glad you were able to sort it out

Maish

Sent from a very small keyboard with very big thumbs