HowTo: Install PXE Manager for vCenter

By admin on June 6, 2011 in General

One of my colleagues in the cloud team has written a “VMware Fling” called PXE Manager for vCenter which can be found by clicking here This is one of the best plug-ins to accompany vCenter for a long time (IMHO). This blog article is part 1 of a two part series to explain how to install and configure PXE Manager. In part 2 I will explain how to deploy stateless ESXi (4.1 Update) hosts.

Note: Before beginning the installation please make sure you have read all the pre-requisites required for this application

Step1: Run vgpxe-x64.exe to begin the application installation

Step2: You will be prompted to run the application

Step3: If you havent already you will be prompted to install .NET Framework version 3.5

Step4: Once all pre-reqs are in place, click Next to start the installation

Step5: Click Next

Step6: Confirm the license agreement and click Next

Step7: Select a location to install the application and for which users and click Next

Step8: The Install is ready, click Next

Step9: Confirm the installation package ReadMe and click Next

Step10: Installation has completed. Click Close Note: If you want to run the PXE Manager configuration tool, ensure “Launch VMware PXE Manager” checkbox is ticked

The PXE Manager Configurator will now run

Step11: Enter the FQDN of a valid vCenter that you want to use

Step12: Confirm the LDAP Port

Note: If vCenter is installed on a domain controller you will need to change the LDAP port to ensure no interferance with Actice Directory

Step13: Enter a valid username and password to connect to the vCenter server

Step14: Confirm that all the vCenter details have been entered correctly

Step15: Confirm how you would like PXE Manager to be known on the network (either by IP address or hostname)

Step16: Confirm if you want to install Microsoft NFS Server

Note: If you intend to deploy stateless hosts you will need to enable NFS Server. PXE Manager configures NFS mounts for the scratch partitions on ESXi. Also note that if installing on Windows 2003 you will need to manually enable Microsoft NFS Server.