Leaving CD in CDROM during Kickstart install

[Stevesdl]

Unattended Kickstart Install

Everything works fine with the exception of if I am not at the machine when the box comes up telling to remove CD media, the machine reboots right back to the beginning of a new install.

Is there some entry in the ks.cfg to restart on the local disk after the install or -- is this not a totally unattended install.

Thanks

Stevelsd

[mhampto]

Is the Host system set to use the CDROM as the first boot device? This could be causing the loop if it is not set after the drive that ESXi will be booting from.

[Stevesdl]

It is the first boot device since I use the CD media for the install along with a thumb drive ks file.

How could I use the cdrom media if it was not?

[Nick_Andreev]

When system can't find a boot partition on the hard drive, it continues through the boot order and boots from a CD-ROM. Once the system is installed, since hard drive is first in the list, system boots from it after a reboot.

Hope that makes sense.

[isheriff]

Hi stevesdl,

This could be because in your boot order, CDROM is the first device to boot from. Since you're not removing the CD once installation completes, when machine reboots it again goes to the CDROM and detects the CD and boots from it and you see the installer loaded.

To avoid this, remove the CD once installation completes or try setting the CDROM as the second boot device, after the disk on which you are going to install ESXi.

Regards,

Iram