Comments on: Automating vSphere ESX4 host installations

By: orionsune

orionsune — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:57:01 +0000

I don’t see how that defeats the purpose. I don’t understand how you can have a fully automated install that works across more than one box considering you will have a different IP and hostname for each server. Guess it comes down to, do I want to have my networking information configured during install, or after?

By: Mike La Spina

Mike La Spina — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 04:43:59 +0000

You could manually prompt for user input (sort of defeats the automation if you ask me) as follows:
# Get user input
while [ "$vmo-ip" == "" ] ;do
header
echo -n “Please Enter the VMotion IP for this ESX Host: ”
read vmo-ip
done

esxcfg-vswitch -A VMotion vSwitch0
esxcfg-vmknic -a VMotion -i $vmo-ip
/usr/bin/vimsh -n -e ‘hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set vmk0′

Regards,

Mike

By: bhanta

bhanta — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:15:52 +0000

Thanks mike. One last thing, would you be able to advise
how i can prompt for a vmotion ip address when the build initially
starts and then use that variable value in the post section to
configure and enable vmotion??

By: Mike La Spina

Mike La Spina — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:33:39 +0000

bhanta,

The issue is more likely to be your syslinux.cfg parameters e.g.

label vh1
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img mem=512M quiet ksdevice=vmnic0 ip=10.10.0.1 netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=10.10.0.254 nameserver=10.10.0.253 ks=http://vc.laspina.ca:8088/esx/4.0/vh1.cfg

Here the vmlinuz kernel will load a busybox img and also passes all the network parms into it.

By: bhanta

bhanta — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:05:05 +0000

OK not sure if what i am seeing is expected behaviour so be greatfull if somebody could comment and advise accordingly. Basically i want to do an automatted esx 4 update1 scripted install…i have tried doing it via a http reopository but wasn’t having much luck. As a result i have now resorted to trying to building a floppy disk image via magiciso (im sure you can use other products) of the ks.cfg file. Then when i boot the HP server i mount the original esx4u1 iso image and also the floppy disk image (of the ks.cfg file) and press f2 at the esx splash screen and type the following:

….ksdevice=vmnic2 ip= netmask= gateway= ks=floppy

however when the build goes thruogh its normal cycle i am still presented with the default “Welcome to the ESX installer” splash screen and i am required to type in the settings manually. It as though the settings in the ks.cfg are ignored…..to make sure my settings are correct ive built this server manually before and got the ks.cfg setttings.

Can somebody suggest what i am doing wrong???

By: Mike La Spina

Mike La Spina — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:42:25 +0000

The “no COS nics” message will not stop the install process from working so the problem must lie with the IP/Network/Nic assignment.

By: bhanta

bhanta — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:26:06 +0000

Hi all…i am experiencing a similar issue to that seen by Lindsay. I am running to create
an automated build for ESX 4 Update 1 using the http based repo method as described on this
site. As a test i first built the serve manually and then copyied the ks.cfg file
to my iis web server. however when i try the build i get the “user has added no COS nics”
error message. Aswell as the “no route to host” – i have tried pinging my iis server
and it works fine.

at the esx splash screen i have tried entering the usual ksdevice=vmnic2 and even
ksdevice=, ip= netmask= etc etc

Any help would be great!

By: Mike La Spina

Mike La Spina — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 03:02:54 +0000

Hi Kevin,

It’s correct with the “but”, this method uses a network share as the repo so you don’t need the rest of the files to create a boot process. The reason for deleting the extra files is to keep the boot and install media small and clean.

Regards,

Mike

By: Kevin McGregor

Kevin McGregor — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:14:21 +0000

This is very interesting. I’m going to try out some variations to see how we can speed up and simplify our vSphere deployments.

In the early part of this post, you write “open the vSphere installation ISO and delete all but the highlighted files show in the graphic”.

It seems like the “but” should be removed. Is that right?

By: Mike La Spina

Mike La Spina — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:33:56 +0000

Hello Abhishek,

The format to specify a cdrom based install is as follows:

##########################################################
# Install or Upgrade
install cdrom

/dev/sda would be hardware probed via the busybox installation process, the issue is more likely a hardware problem. Boot the standard install CDROM to verify the hardware is working correctly. You can also examine what the process detected by using Alt-F2 when the error screen occurs.

Regards,

Mike