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VMware ESXi » History » Revision 4

Revision 3 (Corey Osman, 12/27/2011 10:14 PM) → Revision 4/23 (Corey Osman, 12/27/2011 10:19 PM)

h1. How to Provision a VMware ESXi server using foreman 

 Although puppet will not run under ESX server we can still use foreman to kickstart the server using PXE. 

 h2. Summary of what you need to do: 
 # Copy iso contents of ESXi to your media directory 
 # Copy the esx boot files to your tftp directory 
 # Create a ESX operating system in foreman 
 # Create a ESX partition table (optional) template 
 # Create a ESX kickstart template in foreman 
 # Create a ESX pxe or gpxe template for ESX in foreman 


 h3. Copy iso contents of ESXi to your media directory (example only) 
 <pre> 
 mount -o loop esxi-iso-file.iso /mnt/iso1 LABEL ESXi4u1HP-x86_64 
         kernel /images/ESXi4u1HP-x86_64/mboot.c32 
         MENU LABEL ESXi4u1HP-x86_64 
         append images/ESXi4u1HP-x86_64/vmkboot.gz ks=http://10.0.x.x/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/ESXi4u1HP-x86_64 --- images/ESXi4u1HP-x86_64/vmkernel.gz --- images/ESXi4u1HP-x86_64/sys.vgz --- images/ESXi4u1HP-x86_64/cim.vgz --- images/ESXi4u1HP-x86_64/ienviron.vgz --- images/ESXi4u1HP-x86_64/install.vgz 
 rsync -avz /mnt/iso1/ /var/www/html/repos/vmware/esxi4.1/ 
 </pre> 

 h3. Copy the esx boot files to your tftp directory 
 <pre> 
 cp /var/www/html/repos/vmware/esxi4.1/mboot.c32 /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/vmware/ 
 cp /var/www/html/repos/vmware/esxi4.1/vmkboot.gz /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/vmware/ 
 cp /var/www/html/repos/vmware/esxi4.1/vmkernel.gz /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/vmware/ 
 cp /var/www/html/repos/vmware/esxi4.1/sys.vgz /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/vmware/ 
 cp /var/www/html/repos/vmware/esxi4.1/cim.vgz /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/vmware/ 
 cp /var/www/html/repos/vmware/esxi4.1/ienviron.vgz /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/vmware/ 
 cp /var/www/html/repos/vmware/esxi4.1/install.vgz /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/vmware/ 

 </pre>