Specifications

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VMware GSX Server Virtual Machine Guide
Using PXE with Virtual Machines
You can use a preboot execution environment (commonly known as PXE) to boot a
virtual machine over a network. When you use PXE with a virtual machine, you can:
• Remotely install a guest operating system over a network without needing the
operating system installation media.
• Deploy an image of a virtual disk to the virtual machine.
• Boot a Linux virtual machine over the network and run it diskless.
You use PXE with your virtual machine in conjunction with remote installation tools
such as Windows 2000 Remote Installation Services or the Red Hat Linux 9.0 installer’s
PXE package. You can use Ghost or Altiris to stream an image of an already configured
virtual disk to a new virtual machine.
Make sure the virtual machine has a virtual network adapter; one is installed by
default. VMware supports PXE when the virtual machine is configured to use either
the vmxnet or vlance virtual network adapter.
The virtual machine must have a virtual disk without a guest operating system
installed.
When a virtual machine boots and there is no guest operating system installed, it
proceeds to boot from devices (hard disk, CD-ROM drive, floppy drive and network
adapter) in the order in which they occur in the boot sequence specified in the virtual
machine’s BIOS. If you plan to use PXE with a virtual machine, it is a good idea to put
the network adapter at the top of the boot order. When the virtual machine first
boots, press F2 to enter the virtual machine’s BIOS and change the boot order there.
As the virtual machine boots from the network adapter, it tries to connect to a DHCP
server. The DHCP server provides the virtual machine with an IP address and a list of
any PXE servers available on the network. After the virtual machine connects to a PXE
server, it can connect to a bootable disk image (such as an operating system image or
a Ghost or Altiris disk image) and start installing a guest operating system.
VMware has tested and supports the following PXE configurations with GSX Server 3:
• Remote installation of a Windows Server 2003 guest operating system from a
server running Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services
• Remote installation of a Windows 2000 guest operating system from a server
running Windows 2000 Server/Advanced Server Remote Installation Services
• Remote installation of a Linux guest operating system from a Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 3.0 AS PXE boot server