Posts Tagged ‘server 2003’

ESXi 3.5 and Server 2003 dualboot

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

After some testing I managed to create a dualboot setup with ESXi 3.5 and Windows Server 2003.

  1. Install ESXi to harddisk 1
  2. Install Windows Server 2003 to harddisk 2. Delete the existing partition on harddisk 2 if ESXi has created one.
    On the first reboot during the installation you should get an error “NTLDR is missing”
  3. Boot with a live linux cd-rom, eg KNOPPIX
  4. (Re-)install syslinux bootloader to boot partition (Hypervisor0)
    sudo syslinux /dev/hda1
    file is read only. overwrite anyway (y/n)? y
    sudo mkdir /mnt/Hypervisor0
    sudo mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/Hypervisor0
    vi /mnt/Hypervisor0/syslinux.cfg
    
    

    original:

    default safeboot.c32
    
    

    modified:

    default menu.c32
    menu title Dual boot
    timeout 100
    label esx
    menu label ESXi 3.5
    COM32 safeboot.c32
    LABEL win
    MENU LABEL MS Windows Server 2003
    COM32 chain.c32
    APPEND boot ntldr=/NTLDR
    
    
  5. Copy syslinux modules menu.c32 and chain.c32 to boot partition (Hypervisor0)
    Use locate to find the folder on the live cd that contains the modules, eg locate menu.c32

    cp /usr/lib/syslinux/menu.c32 /mnt/Hypervisor0
    cp /usr/lib/syslinux/chain.c32 /mnt/Hypervisor0
    
    
  6. Reboot