Installing VMware ESX 4.1

I’am using the following image:
ESX-4.1.0-update01-348481

CPU must support Virtualisation (Hyper-V for Intel and AMD-V for AMD)

ESX 4.1 required  minimum 2 GB RAM

Please Disconnect the server from the SAN, configure the server to boot from the optical drive or an ISO image, insert the ESX DVD, and reboot the computer.

So let me tab over to the console of our VMware ESX Server where we’ll be installing VMware ESX 4.1.

To begin my ESX installation, I’ve inserted my ESX build CD into my server and rebooted it as I mentioned previously. You may need to adjust your host machine’s BIOS boot-device priority from a floppy disk or the hard drive to the CD-ROM. You can often change the primary boot device by using the system’s boot menu: generally it’s a function key, such as F12.

Now as an alternative to that, if you have a higher end server that might have a server management card, you can mount that ISO image using the virtual CD function. As an example of a server management card, HP has their iLO card and Dell has their DRAC card. Those cards are able to mount the ISO image of VMware ESX 4 over your network to the server and you’re actually able to boot the server from the ISO image that’s still on your computer without ever having to burn that image to a DVD and put it in the drive. So, once the DVD’s in the drive, you’re going to boot the server off of the DVD.

All right, I just powered up the server, it recognized the DVD, and it booted into the VMware ESX 4.1 installation screen.

Here i am installing on my VMware workstation, before installing on vmware workstation please enable VT Technology from processor setting tab.

2. The installer begins. Simply click Next.

3. The End User License Agreement appears. Click the “I accept the terms of the license agreement” and click Next.

4. Select your desired keyboard layout. We’ll be using U.S. English. Click Next.

5. Do you need to install any custom drivers such as NICS, HBA’s, etc then select yes and click Next. We won’t be installing any custom drivers. Click Next.

6. A dialog box is presented warning you that additional custom drivers cannot be loaded. The system drivers will now be loaded. Click No to go back and add custom drivers, or click Yes to continue.

7. Drivers have now been loaded and you’re ready for the next step. Click Next.

8. You have the option to enter in the serial number for your ESX host now or later. As we’ll be connecting this server to vCenter, we’ll select to add it later so that we can control all the licenses through one management platform. Click Next.

9. Select the network adapter that will be used to connect to the Service Console.

10. You can assign an IP address to your ESX host automatically or statically. DHCP is not recommended, though if you do use it make sure you reserve an IP address in your dhcp server so that your ESX host always receives the same IP. The preferred method is to assign a static IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, primary and secondary DNS and fully qualified host name. Make sure you’re DNS infrastrastructure is working correctly and you’re able to resolve the fully qualified host name after install. In my lab I only have 1 DNS server setup so I won’t be using a secondary. Click Next.

11. Standard setup will get you up and running quickly with all the defaults. However in this tutorial I want to show you some custom partitioning for the service console, so we’ll select “Advanced setup” and leave the tick box next to “Configure boot loaded automatically”. Click Next.

12.Give a name for the local datastore. By default it is Storage1, i changed into datastor20. Click Next.

13. The below screen shows the default partitioning. We’ll be changing these in the next few screens to better optimize ESX. Click Edit.
                           

14. The below customized partitions provides enough data storage for an ESX server without the need to re-partition or re-install ESX. Make sure you have enough free space on the disk to support the partition sizes below. Click Next

/         ext3     5000MB      Primary

swap  swap    1600MB      Primary

/var     ext3     2048MB     Extended

/home ext3     2048MB     Extended

/tmp    ext3     2048MB     Extended

15. Select the correct timezone either by selecting your country, city on the map, or you can also set it manually by clicking on the Advanced button. Click Next.

16.You can enter in an NTP server or manually select the time. Keeping the time synchronized among your ESX infrastructure is essential for logging purposes. Click Next.

17. Enter in the root password. You can add additional accounts by clicking Add. In a production environment I would recommend setting additional users. By default ESX does not allow remote access to the system using the root account. This can be changed after installation by using this tutorial – Allow remote root access to ESX. Click Next.

18. You are finally presented with an installation summary. If you are happy with all the settings click Next to start the installation, otherwise click Back and make the necessary changes.

19. Installation is now complete. Click Next.

20. Click Finish 

Now ESX 4.1 successively installed on my workstation.