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:

  • Have a virtual disk without operating system software and with enough free disk space to store the intended system software.
  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.
  2. Select an installation method.
    Option Action
    CD-ROM Insert the installation CD-ROM for your guest operating system into the CD-ROM drive of your ESXi host.
    ISO image
    1. Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. The virtual machine Edit Settings dialog box opens. If the Virtual Hardware tab is not preselected, select it.
    2. Select Datastore ISO File from the CD/DVD drop-down menu, and browse for the ISO image for your guest operating system.
    ISO image from a Content Library
    1. Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. The virtual machine Edit Settings dialog box opens. If the Virtual Hardware tab is not preselected, select it.
    2. Select Content Library ISO File from the CD/DVD drop-down menu, and select an ISO image from the content library items.
  3. Right-click the virtual machine and select Power On.
    A green right arrow appears next to the virtual machine icon in the inventory list.
  4. Follow the installation instructions that the operating system vendor provides.

What to do next

Install VMware Tools. VMware highly recommends running the latest version of VMware Tools on your guest operating systems. Although the guest operating system can run without VMware Tools, you lose important functionality and convenience without them. See How do I Upgrade Virtual Machines for instructions on installing and upgrading VMware Tools.

Upload ISO Image Installation Media for a Guest Operating System

You can upload an ISO image file to a datastore from your local computer. You can do this when a virtual machine, host, or cluster does not have access to a datastore or to a shared datastore that has the guest operating system installation media that you require.

Prerequisites

Required privileges:
  • Datastore.Browse datastore on the datastore.
  • Datastore.Low level file operations on the datastore.
  • Host.Configuration.System Management

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, select Menu > Storage.
  2. Select the datastore from the inventory to which you will upload the file.
  3. (Optional) On the Files tab, click the New Folder icon to create a new folder.
  4. Select an existing folder or the folder that you created, and click the Upload Files icon.
  5. On the local computer, find the file and upload it.
    ISO upload times vary, depending on file size and network upload speed.
  6. Refresh the datastore file browser to see the uploaded file in the list.

What to do next

After you upload the ISO image installation media, you can configure the virtual machine CD-ROM drive to access the file.