Specifications

Administration Guide
44 VMware, Inc.
Installing a Guest Operating System on a Formatted Raw Disk
If!you!try!to!install!a!guest!operating!system!on!a!raw!or!physical!disk!that!was!
formatted!with!a!file!system,!you!might!see!a!“No!operating!system”!error!when!you!
power!on!the!virtual!machine.!This!occurs!because!the!boot!order!specified!in!the!
virtual!machine’s!BIOS!defaults!to
!the!floppy!disk,!hard!disk,!and!then!the!CD‐ROM!
drive.!Instead!of!booting!from!the!installation!CD‐ROM,!the!virtual!machine!tries!to!
boot!from!the!hard!disk.
To!work!around!this!issue,!do!one!of!the!following:
! Change!the!boot!order!in!BIOS!so!the!virtual!machine!boots!from!the!CD‐ROM!
drive!before!trying!the!hard!disk.!When!the!virtual!machine!boots,!enter!the!BIOS!
and!change!the!boot!order!on!the!Boot!menu.
! Zero!out!the!first!64KB!of!the!raw!disk!using!dd!or!a!similar!utility.!For!example,!
using!dd:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/<device> count=64 bs=1024
In!the!command!above,!device!is!the!device!name!of!the!physical!disk.
Installing VMware Tools in the Guest Operating System
This!section!describes!how!to!install!VMware!Tools!and!the!network!driver!in!the!guest!
operating!system.!Note!the!following:
! The!steps!for!each!guest!operating!system!assume!that!you!are!working!from!a!
remote!console!connected!to!your!virtual!machine.
! In!each!procedure,!choosing!Settings!>!VMware!Tools!Install!prepares!the!
CD‐ROM!drive!in!the!virtual!machine!to!use!an!ISO!image!file!containing!the!
VMware!Tools!packages.!This!image,!which!appears!as!a!regular!CD‐ROM!disk!in!
the!virtual!machine,!was!placed!on!your!server!machine!when!you
!installed!
VMware!ESX!Server.
Select!the!appropriate!procedure!below!for!installing!VMware!Tools!in!your!guest!
operating!system.
N
OTE When!you!install!a!guest!operating!system!on!a!new!virtual!disk,!you!might!get!a!
warning!message!that!the!disk!is!corrupted.!It!will!ask!whether!you!want!to!place!a!
partition!table!on!the!disk.!This!message!means!that!some!data!needs!to!be!written!to!
the!file!that
!holds!your!virtual!hard!disk.!Respond!Yes.!You!also!need!to!partition!and!
format!the!virtual!disk!as!you!would!with!a!new,!blank!hard!drive.!