I get a lot of questions concerning the deployment of Windows XP on ESX. By default, ESX will use the LSI Logic driver when deploying a new Windows XP virtual machine. The LSI Logic driver is not found on the CD-ROM media, so Windows XP will not continue with the installation if this driver is not found.
The steps:. Create a new Windows XP Virtual Machine. Upload a Windows XP.iso file to your datastore/ISOstore (preferably a VLK version) and link it via the CD-ROM options in your Virtual Machine. Make sure it is connected / at power on.
Go to and search for a driver for the LSI20320-R controller. Extract all files in the symmpiwXP1201800.ZIP. Use a program such as WinImage to create an LSILogic.flp file and include the extracted files in the.flp image. Upload the newly created LSILogic.flp to your datastore/ISO store. Link the.flp file via the Floppy options = use existing floppy image in datastore in your Virtual Machine. Do NOT connect it yet. Power On your Windows XP machine.
The installation of Windows XP should begin. During setup, press F6 to select additional SCSI drivers. Now is the time to connect your floppy and use S during Windows Setup when prompted to connect to the floppy drive. The LSILogic drive should appear. Press ENTER to continue. Setup will continue as normal.
A Windows application passes SCSI commands directly to the SCSI devices by using the SCSI pass-through facility (refer to the Microsoft Windows NT documentation for details). This facility allows applications to directly control and access SCSI devices by filling in a data structure and calling in to the port driver. SCSI miniport drivers for NT-based operating systems are HBA-specific but operating system-independent. That is, each miniport driver links itself with the system-supplied SCSI port driver, which is a dynamic-link library (DLL), and calls only the port driver's ScsiPort Xxx routines to communicate with the system and its HBA.
Install VMware tools. Done!
NOTE: when using the BusLogic driver instead, you can download & use a preconfigured.flp file from the VMware site:. Follow the same procedure as described above. The driver should be name VMware SCSI Controller in Windows XP. Zei We did a lot of work to make our uanttended installation CD/DVD to work wihich VMware ESX and its works now for us.
We added the mass storage drivers to it. Below you will find a plain text version of the instruction we wrote for it. I you want to recieve this document as a.pdf file, just send me a request by email: [email protected]. Adding mass storage drivers to a unattended WinXP DVD for VMware ESX 1. Introduction When installing a virtual Windows XP machine on VMware ESX its irritating that you have to create a (virtual) floppy/CD with the right LSI-SCSI drivers. Next, during the textmode setup, you have to press the F6 button to load them.
We searched a lot and found a way to add the needed LSI SCSI-drivers to the unattended installation DVD for installing Windows XP Professional SP2 and SP3 on VMware ESX 3.5. Make certain that system file are being displayed on your system, otherwise you will get a problem! I tried to write this instruction in English, so it can be read by a lot of you. If you are happy with it, because it was helpfull, just let me know by a little email to [email protected] 2.
Get the right drivers for VMware. Start with downloading the actual version of de VMware tools from the Vmware site or better copy the windows.iso file from your VMware ESX 3.xx machine by using a tools like WinSCP (See:. On the file system of your ESX machine the windows.iso file is located in: /vmimages/tools-isoimages/ Always use the tools from your Vmware system. Beware of version conflicts!
(see last chapter). After you have copied the windows.iso file to your system, extract it with a tool like WinRAR (see: to a temporary folder. Within the directory:. Windows program files VMware VMware Tools Drivers are the drivers needed later! Get right SCSI drivers from LSI. Go to and look for the right LSI20320 SCSI adapter driver ( = WHQL version 1.20.18) for your guest operating system: WindowsXP. Download the driver file and extract it with a tool like WinRAR to a temporary folder.
Within the directory:. Xpx86 are the drivers we need later! If you use a older version of Vmware ESX there can be a version conflict with the latest SCSI-drivers, so you need the driver version before 1.10 (see the last chapter for more details). IMPORTANT The latest symmpi.sys file version 1.26.5.0 doesn’t work and stops with errors! So we continued to use the 1.20.18.0 version. Background information.
Windows Setup uses a number of key files to control how Windows Setup behaves. Controlling this files = controlling how Windows setup behaves.
There are three files you have know about: o DOSNET.INF Used by WINNT.EXE/WINNT32.EXE during the file copy phase of the setup o LAYOUT.INF Used as a template for file copy operations. DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE! O TXTSETUP.SIF Used by the text mode phase of the setup and prepares for the GUI phase of the setup.
The textmode phase is invoked after the reboot from the copy phase or when booting from the (unattended) installation CD/DVD. Because we use the unattended CD/DVD installation method, we only adjust the txtsetup.sif file and some other files. Textmode setup: Change the TXTSETUP.SIF. Edit the TXTSETUP.SIF file located in the./i386/ folder of the unattended folder structure with something like notepad. In this file the following sections are important for us and needs some modifying: WinntDirectories 1 = ' ' 2 = system32 3 = system32 config 4 = system32 drivers. 18 = system32 spool drivers w32x86.
20 = inf Explanation (1 of 5) - This section maps a physical directory, it doesn’t mather if it’s absolute like ‘ ’ or relative like%Systemroot%. The folder is identified by the Windows setup by the number it was assigned to.
4 = system32 drivers maps the number 4 to%Systemroot% system32 drivers. SourceDisksFiles system.drv = 1,2,1,0 system.mof = 1,3,3 systray.exe = 1,2,0,0 symmpi.sys = 1,3,4,1,1,4 symmpi.inf = 1,20,0,0 T1.t4 = 1,3,3 t1513470.ppd = 1,3,3 t1535470.ppd = 1,3,3 t1tr6.t4 = 1,3,3 Explanation (2 of 5) - This section controls how source files are copied to their destination and what their properties will be. The file ‘symmpi.inf = 1,20,0,0’ can be copied to the%Systemroot% Inf folder. The 2 yellow/bold line with symmpi.xxx = 1xxxxx must be added under the SourceDisksFiles. Put them under the systray.exe item.
The numbers 4 and 20 both point to the corresponding WinntDirectories HardwareIdsDatabase. Zei An even easier way to integrate the mass storage drivers in your Windows XP ISO is nLite (, see for instructions). To add the driver, save the driver files in an empty folder. Click the driver and Bootable ISO buttons inside nLite, then click next.
Click Insert, Multiple Driver folder. Select Textmode Driver. Click next and start the process (nLite will compile all required config files). on the bootable ISO page, click the make ISO button. Upload the iso to your ESX box or attach it through the VC client.
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