ESX deployment appliance v1.05

[brugh]

https://solutionexchange.vmware.com/store/products/esx-deployment-appliance-eda

ESX Deployment Appliance (EDA) is a small and easy to use appliance

that makes deploying ESX servers a breeze. It has a very intuitive

web-interface that can configure and deploy dozens of ESX servers in

minutes. It has a script-builder that will allow any admin to create

%post-scripts that will do most anything one needs to get the ESX hosts

up and running! Even if deploying with RDP/Altiris or the UDA, this

script-builder can help setting those up very quickly.

[goldsc000]

I just download version 0.87. I want to add a new host with letters and numbers in te host name. In version 0.85 this worked fine but in the new version the host name is mixed up. AB00CD123 becoumes ABAC123 and host name 123abc becomes abc13. Any one a idea how to correct this in version 0.87

[ptsmit]

Hello Herco,

I'm using EDA 0.87. I was playing with adding new servers with the new option to add multiple nodes in one session. But again I do have a challenge.

I would like to have nodenames with the following pattern. SD00AS123 where 123 is the number that must be 1 higer with every new node. The permanent part of the names contains zero's , but when I press the add button, I do get names without the zero's. When I do use "#" in stead of zeros as you told me last week, this is the number that become higher with every new node. So SD00AS123, SD01AS123 is what I do get and SD00AS123, SD00AS124 is what I like to have. If I use zero's in stead of "#"I do get SDAS123 and SDAS124.

Is there a possibility to get the names as I want, or do I have to add all the nodes seperately using ## in the names.

Hope you can help me agian. Thanks in advance.

Kond regards

Tom Smit

[espi3030]

bggb29,

How did you correct the issue of:

The next issue I ran into was the install changing the nic so that when the network restarted

it was not pulling the ks config and I was getting the language question.

I can not get past that, if I hit CTRL+F3 to see the install I see:

<6>cdrom: open failed.

<6>cdrom: open failed.

The CDROM is attached, I was able to copy the PXEBoot files just fine. I am using ESX 3.5 U3

Help?

[Arrow1]

Hi Guys,

EDA seems to be a nice appliance.

I recently downloaded the appliance (next the to Vmworld ).

After I had configured the DHCP, connected the ESX iso, imported the boot files,

I'm facing a "PXE E32: TFTP open timeout" error message when I boot my esx with F12.

Could someone provide some help?

Is there any (more detailled) setup documentation?

Regards

Bernard

[brugh2]

that's very curious.. you sure they're setup EXACTLY the same? perhaps the kernelmemory is larger with EDA? i can think of no reason why a scripted installation would leave you with less memory than a manual one since they both do exactly the same thing!

perhaps you can compare the /etc/vmware/esx.conf files on both servers, see where they differ?

[brugh]

you can use # in stead of 0 to enter 1 hostname. but the routine to add multiple servers at once is just a quick hack and isn't as flexible as you need it atm. did you try AB00CD1## as input? that should work to a certain extend..

[brugh]

the routine to enter multiple hostnames at once is going to be better in the next release. for now it's just not that flexible yet.

the way you would want to enter the hostnames is SD00AS1##. in the next version i'll do some work to get this to work better.

[brugh]

the TFTP error you get is usually caused by an incorrect entry in the dhcp configuration. the 'next-server' should point to the IP address of the EDA. if it's not, you get an 'open timeout' error.

there's a quick startup guide on http://virtualappliances.eu that should help setting these things up correctly.

[virtualizeme215]

Both systems have the console memory set to 800mb. They both have the same version of Dell SA, Same patch level, same bios, same firmware, etc.

Have you noticed this with any of your systems?

[brugh]

both servers don't seem to be exactly alike. on one of them NaviCLI doesn't seem to be installed and the order at which the PCI devices are reported differ somewhat.

but that shouldn't make the 250mb differense in memory you're seeing. what is odd, is that it doesn't simply report the full 64GB. i have little referense since i practically never install esx servers manually anymore.

but most servers i install are 32GB machines that always report the full 32GB of ram. my guess is that the servers are fysically a little different (perhaps later models of the same productline?) OR that the 36-bit address space that ESX uses for 64GB servers could mean that some PCI device misallocate some memory which makes ESX report less than the full 64GB of ram. even a later revision of one line of PCI devices could cause this.

it any of that is true and you reinstall a manually installed server with the EDA, it should report the same amount of memory as before. if it doesn't, i would be very curious to find out where the difference is coming from!

[virtualizeme215]

Both systems are the same model. They were ordered and shipped and received at the same time. I beleive there is only 1 digit difference in the serial number. I would bet they were behind each other on the assembly line.

As you said i can't beleive the Navisphere Clinet would causes 250mb difference in memory. I guess i will put in a call to VMware to see why this is happening.

Thanks for your help.

[espi3030]

I am having an issue trying to install via the EDA, I guess when it gets to the partition portion. I am doing boot from SAN, could my problem have anything to do with the EDA removing the SAN drivers? I hope not because that's all we do is boot from SAN. Please see the atached files. I am running out of hair(s) to pull out

Thank you!

[brugh]

well, if you try to boot from san without drivers, it will fail. and yes, EDA by default removes the drivers, so you have an issue there.

but some 10 posts back in this thread i posted a workaround for this issue. supporting boot from san configurations is on my todolist for the next release.

[brugh]

if you hear anything from them, let us know

[Arrow1]

Great,

Many thanks this fixed my issue.

One more question: Could I use EDA to just act as a PXE server but for a manual installation?

Regards

Bernard

[brugh2]

absolutely, just add the hostnames to the list and type:

• esxhostname ks=dummy

at the bootprompt. it will not find the ks file specified and drop back to manual installation.

[Arrow1]

I tested it and got effectively an alert.

I have the n been asked for language / keyboard selection and media selection.

At that request I entered HTTP.

Later I entered the ip address ot EDA server and 'esx' (without quote) because I will take benefit of the EDA mounted ESX ISO.

This lead to an error (see enclosed snap).

What I made wrong?

[Arrow1]

BTW: I made an error while adding a host!

I enterred a space in the hostname (oups!). I now see the host in the list but when

clicking on its name in the GUI, the parameters fields are empty and not delete

button is presented.

Is there a simple way to fix this?

[Arrow1]

Don't pay attention to this last post (hostname with space).

I managed to delete it invoking manually a modified URL to which I have added the missing part:

110

[brugh]

?:|, never knew it would accept hostnames with a space in it. good find