VMware vSphere

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  • 1.  How to boot a VM from an ISO (operating system) on a local RAID.

    Posted Feb 12, 2010 06:11 AM

    I just successfully installed a driver for my Areca RAID card into ESXi 4.0 Update 1. Now my RAID 6 array shows up in vSphere (called vmhba3:C0:T0:L0). It's a 5.5 TB drive with about 1.5 TB data, including Windows Server 2008 stored as an ISO. I have created an empty VM. How do I have the VM boot from the ISO on my RAID so I can install Windows Server 2008 into my VM?

    When I was running Hyper-V before, I simply started the VM, then pointed the VM's CD-ROM driver at that drive (which was labeled S:), then navigated down to the directory where the ISO was sitting and pointed at the ISO. I then set the VM to boot from CD, and so it booted from the Windows Server 2008 ISO image. It doesn't seem so easy with ESXi.

    Thanks,

    Jay



  • 2.  RE: How to boot a VM from an ISO (operating system) on a local RAID.

    Posted Feb 12, 2010 06:44 AM

    1) ESXi doesn't know about NTFS, so you can not browse this LUN and use files from it

    2) ESXi does not support LUNs more than 2TB minus 512B


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    MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

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  • 3.  RE: How to boot a VM from an ISO (operating system) on a local RAID.

    Posted Feb 12, 2010 01:19 PM

    Hi,

    To boot a new VM using ISO of OS e following:

    1. Make sure the OS ISO is uploaded in the Datastore of your ESXi server

    2. Open the console of your newly created VM, then click on Connect/Disconnect CD/DVD devices of the virtual machine tab and select the option Connect to ISO image on a datastore --> browse your datastore and select the OS ISO image.

    3. Restart your VM to boot from the ISO image.

    4. Make sure once your OS installation is complete you remove the ISO image from the CD/DVD i.e. you disconnect the device

    Hope this information is helpful to you

    Nikhil