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Extracting ESX Server 3i Version 3.5 Update 4 Installable Image Files for PXE Booting

Details

The environment, tools, and methods described in this article serve as examples only. To implement the steps that follow, you should be familiar with image files and their formats.

ESX Server 3i version 3.5 Update 4 Installable is distributed in an ISO format that is designed to install into flash memory or a local hard drive. The steps that follow describe a series of file extractions that you must perform to obtain access to the ESX Server 3i version 3.5 Update 4 Installable image files for enabling network PXE booting.

Many extraction tools are available, but these example instructions use the following tools:

  • A free version Gilles Vollant Software’s WinImage
  • A free version of Access Data’s Forensics ToolKit (FTK)
  • A trial version of RARLAB’s WinRAR

Solution

  1. Download the ESX Server 3i version 3.5 Update 4 Installable ISO image from http://www.vmware.com/download/esxi.
  2. Extract the install.tgz file from the ISO Image.
    If you are installing on a Windows system, you can use WinImage/WinRAR to extract the contents from the ISO. If you are installing on a UNIX/LINUX system, you can use the mount command and loop mount the ISO to extract the contents.
  3. Extract the VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update...dd.bz2 file from the install.tgz file.
    If you are installing on a Windows system, you can use WinRAR to extract the contents from the TGZ file. If you are installing on a UNIX/LINUX system, you can use the tar command to extract the contents.
  4. Extract the .dd image from the .bz2 file.
    If you are installing on a Windows system, you can use WinRAR to extract the contents from the TGZ file. If you are installing on a UNIX/LINUX system, you can use the tar command to extract the contents.
  5. Extract the required files (see the required files list that follows) from Partition 4 on the .dd image.
    If you are installing on a Windows system, you can use Winimage or FTK to open the .dd image and extract the required files. If you are installing on a UNIX/LINUX system, you can use the mount command and the offset option to loop mount the .dd image to extract the contents from different partitions.

    Partition 4
    Partition 5
    Partition 8
    ESX Server 3i version 3.5 boot and configuration files [required]
    		 ESX Server 3i version 3.5 SYSLINUX files [optional]
    		 VMware VI Client and VMware Tools files [optional]

    Required Files List
    1. mboot.c32
    2. binmod.tgz
    3. boot.cfg
    4. cim.tgz
    5. environ.tgz
    6. license.tgz
    7. oem.tgz
    8. vmkernel.tgz
For more information about stateless PXE booting of VMware ESX Server 3i Version 3.5 Update 4, see Stateless VMware ESX Server 3i Version 3.5 Update 4 Using PXE Booting (KB 1008971)

Keywords

pxe esxi installable image_extraction

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  • KB Article: 1009034
  • Updated: Aug 14, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware ESXi
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable