Any VMWare ESXI 3 users out there?

[Jugernot]

So, I just installed ESXI 3 on a new Dell Poweredge 1900 Dual Quad Core Xeon CPU, 2TB, and 8GB of memory (soon to be upgraded to 16GB).

Got the VIC installed on a XP machine on the same VLAN and was able to set it up and get a couple virtual machines going. My question is regarding the hypervisor in ESXI.

Supposedly it's a bare metal solution, a direct interface between hard and Virtual machine (IE: No OS in between). How does one normally get the hypervisor onto a system to run a VM? I was thinking it wad done via PXE or BOOTP, but it seems that isn't correct. Do you load it off a CD or is it put directly on the HD?

Idealy, I'd like to do PXE setup, but the setup seems very detailed.

Anyone out there run the ESXI hypervisor? Even if you can't answer my questions, I'd still like to here your opinion on it.

Thanks

Jugs

 

[dphantom]

ESXi is a bare metal install. I just put up my first ESXi server in production today. I loaded it off CD. Can't put it on a HD because there is no OS there and if there is the OS is destroyed when you install ESIx.

 

[SolMiester]

Originally posted by: Jugernot
So, I just installed ESXI 3 on a new Dell Poweredge 1900 Dual Quad Core Xeon CPU, 2TB, and 8GB of memory (soon to be upgraded to 16GB).

Got the VIC installed on a XP machine on the same VLAN and was able to set it up and get a couple virtual machines going. My question is regarding the hypervisor in ESXI.

Supposedly it's a bare metal solution, a direct interface between hard and Virtual machine (IE: No OS in between). How does one normally get the hypervisor onto a system to run a VM? I was thinking it wad done via PXE or BOOTP, but it seems that isn't correct. Do you load it off a CD or is it put directly on the HD?

Idealy, I'd like to do PXE setup, but the setup seems very detailed.

Anyone out there run the ESXI hypervisor? Even if you can't answer my questions, I'd still like to here your opinion on it.

Thanks

Jugs

Check the BIOS to ensure the VT instruction for the CPU is enabled....

 

[Jugernot]

Ok, I think I'm being confusing. What I want is the VMWare client software to be pushed out over PXE so I can make a "dumb terminal" a display for a VM. Don't know if this is possible.

btw, I currently use Ghost over PXE and it works fantastic.

 

[tfinch2]

PXE booting ESXi is possible, but not officially supported. You can also run it off of a USB device.