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    Unable to install pfSense on ESXi

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Virtualization
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    • O
      Octopuss
      last edited by Octopuss

      First off, I know virtually nothing about networking and virtualization, but please don't tell me not to bother. I just want/need to finish this.
      I have Vsphere installed and somewhat configured.
      The server has two SSDs: one on which the Vsphere itself resides, and the other where VMs will be.
      I read several articles about installing pfSense on ESXi, but I am unable to get the installation going.
      I created the actual VM just like the articles said, uploaded the installation ISO to the first SSD, booted the VM up and... no matter what I do it just attempts to boot from network (VMXNET3).
      In the BIOS I changed boot order to CD first, but it makes no difference.

      Does anyone know right away what am I doing wrong?

      I'll provide as much additional information as I can (no idea if this is enough - probably not).
      Thanks!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • RicoR
        Rico LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance
        last edited by

        Huh? Don't go crazy, just open the VMRC console on your machine for this VM, mount the .ISO and it will boot from there.

        -Rico

        O 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • O
          Octopuss @Rico
          last edited by

          @rico said in Unable to install pfSense on ESXi:

          Huh? Don't go crazy, just open the VMRC console on your machine for this VM, mount the .ISO and it will boot from there.

          -Rico

          I forgot to mention I have built a standalone server. This is not running on my machine.

          Also, one thing I noticed is that the datastore iso in the VM's settings keeps unchecking the "connect" checkbox, which is probably the reason it's not booting, but I have no idea why.

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          • V
            viragomann
            last edited by

            Consider that the download images are packed.

            O 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • O
              Octopuss @viragomann
              last edited by

              @viragomann said in Unable to install pfSense on ESXi:

              Consider that the download images are packed.

              ...ok.
              Now I feel retarded. I thought I was downloading an actual ISO, and now that I re-checked it's indeed an archive of some sort.
              LOL!
              Thanks for pointing that out :D

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              • KOMK
                KOM
                last edited by

                I would have thought that ESXi would automatically filter out any non-ISO files. It really let you pick the gzip file as an ISO?

                V O 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • V
                  viragomann @KOM
                  last edited by

                  @kom
                  No, Octopuss mentioned anyway above, that he wasn't able to connect the file.

                  KOMK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • O
                    Octopuss @KOM
                    last edited by

                    @kom said in Unable to install pfSense on ESXi:

                    I would have thought that ESXi would automatically filter out any non-ISO files. It really let you pick the gzip file as an ISO?

                    Yup it did. Weird!

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                    • KOMK
                      KOM @viragomann
                      last edited by

                      @viragomann But that was after letting him select the .gz in the first place. It was smart enough to know it can't connect to a gzip, but not smart enough to filter out all non-ISO files in the image picker dialog?

                      I just tried it myself with ESXi 6.7 and it doesn't show any non-ISO files. I couldn't select one even if I wanted to.

                      Bizarre.

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