Possible to install XP Pro on ESX Server?

[aking]

I've got 2 esx servers running a few Win 2003 servers. For reasons to do with one of the company's critical apps i need a dedicated xp machine. So i thought i'd just buy a license for xp and install it on one of my esx servers rather than buy new hardware for such a trivial task and
I've spent the last 4 hours trying to install xp on esx server.

I've checked the vmware web site and it claims it is possible. I've created a floppy image and hit f6 during setup, hit 's' to add additional apdapters, setup finds the "LSI PCI Fusion MPT Driver XP - 32bit" from my floppy image - it all looks good....

Get to end of setup, hit enter to start install of xp:
"setup did not find any hard disk drives installed"

so i've tried different LSI drivers, different utilities to create the floppy image, tried re-making the vm from scratch. Now i guess i'll go back and try it all over again with buslogic drivers instead of lsi....

I read another thread where someone was trying to do this but it kind of fizzled out without an answer.
Has anyone done this before successfully?

 

[ArizonaGeek]

You need to use the LSI20320-R driver from the LSI Logic website grab the XP driver and create your floppy image from that.

Worked for me. Once you're done, create a clone of your machine in case you need another one it'll save ya the hassle.

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!

 

[aking]

Yeah i was trying that driver - no success.
what version of esx server do you have? I'm on 3.0.2 - I guess i'll run the update to 3.5 and try again - maybe it's down to that.
I'm glad to know that it's possible tho, thanks.

 

[TheLad]

I took the shortcut of using P2V on my laptop which worked well for my situation where I needed an XP PC in my environment quick...

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"Insert funny comment in here!"
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[ArizonaGeek]

I am on ESX 3.5 so that may be the reason. Good luck!

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!

 

[said07]

ArizonaGeek

How would I create a floppy image from the LSI20320-R driver?

Thanks,

 

[ArizonaGeek]

I don't remember what program I used for creating the floppy image. Just do a Google search and you can find some, even a shareware with a trial should get you to at least create one floppy. Which is all you need. There are a few programs out there ... again I just don't remember what I used.

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!

 

[said07]

Actually I got it figured out this morning.
Esx 3.5 has an fl image for the scsi driver in /vmimages/floppies named vmscsi-1.2.0.2..flp which worked just like a charm.

On the vamware download site at this link:

http://www.vmware.com/download/ws/drivers_tools.html

all the way to the bottom, they also have a scsi disk drivers for a newer version: 1.2.0.4.

I found the solution in this vmware document:

http://pubs.vmware.com/guestnotes/w...tm?context=guestnotes&file=guestos_winxp.html

Thanks for your time.