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Table Of Contents
Installing a Guest Operating System
A virtual machine is not complete until you install the guest operating system and VMware Tools.
Installing a guest operating system in your virtual machine is essentially the same as installing it in a
physical computer.
The basic steps for a typical operating system are described in this section. See the Guest Operating
System Installation Guide at http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html.
Using PXE with Virtual Machines
You can start a virtual machine from a network device and remotely install a guest operating system using
a Preboot Execution Environment (PXE). You do not need the operating system installation media. When
you turn on the virtual machine, the virtual machine detects the PXE server.
PXE booting is supported for Guest Operating Systems that are listed in the VMware Guest Operating
System Compatibility list and whose operating system vendor supports PXE booting of the operating
system.
The virtual machine must meet the following requirements:
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Have a virtual disk without operating system software and with enough free disk space to store the
intended system software.
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Have a network adapter connected to the network where the PXE server resides.
For details about guest operating system installation, see the Guest Operating System Installation Guide
at http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html.
Install a Guest Operating System from Media
You can install a guest operating system from a CD-ROM or from an ISO image. Installing from an ISO
image is typically faster and more convenient than a CD-ROM installation.
If the virtual machine’s boot sequence progresses too quickly for you to open a console to the virtual
machine and enter BIOS or EFI setup, you might need to delay the boot order. See Delay the Boot
Sequence.
Prerequisites
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Verify that the installation ISO image is present on a VMFS datastore or network file system (NFS)
volume accessible to the ESXi host.
Alternatively, verify that an ISO image is present in a content library.
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Verify that you have the installation instructions that the operating system vendor provides.
Procedure
1 Log in to the vCenter Server system or host on which the virtual machine resides.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
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