How to Manually Create Virtual Machine

1.       Use the cobbler /buildiso from Satellite/Spacewalk, generated.iso or other Linux ISO.

2.       Launch VMWare Infrastructure Client from your pc and login to vCenter with your user account.  

a.       Alternative use the vSphere Web Client (mandatory in 5.5)

3.       Right click on Red Hat Secondary (or primary) ESX Host and choose 'New Virtual Machine'  

4.       On 'New Virtual Machine Wizard' box choose ‘Custom' and then click 'Next'  

5.       On 'Select a Name and Location' box type in the name of the virtual server following naming standard, i.e. someVMName   and choose a folder in the Inventory Location.   Then click ‘next’ to continue.

6.       On 'Choose a Datastore for the Virtual Machine' select any available datastore, (other than local) and click 'Next'  

7.       On Virtual Machine Version keep VM Hardware Version X checked and click next to continue.

8.       On 'Choose the Guest Operating System' screen choose 'Linux' radio button and then choose 'Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (64-bit)' and click 'Next'  

9.       On 'Virtual CPU' screen set as needed and click 'Next'  

10.   On 'Memory' screen set 'Memory for this Virtual Machine' to 2048 and click 'Next'  

11.   On 'Choose Networks' screen use these settings and then click 'Next'  

a.       How many NIC's do you want to connect? 1  

b.      Network for NIC 1: vlan XXX  

c.        Adapter:  VMXNET3

d.       Connect At Power On: Checked 

e.      Note: vlan XXX as DHCP and will boot into kickstart

12.   On SCSI Controller leave default ‘paravirtualization’ checked and click next to continue.

13.   On Select a Disk leave default ‘Create new disk’ checked and click next

a.       On 'Specify Virtual Disk Capacity' screen set disk size to 50gb

b.      Check  ‘Allocate and commit space on demand (Thin Provisioning) and click 'Next'  

14.   On Advanced options, leave as is, and click next

15.   On 'Ready to Complete New Virtual Machine' screen review your settings to verify everything is correct then click 'Finish'  

16.    Click on ‘ESX Host ' and then click on 'Virtual Machines' tab in right side window.   

17.    Locate the new virtual machine you just created and right-click on it and choose 'Edit Notes...'  

18.    Enter new virtual machine description in the 'Edit Notes' dialog box. 

Install OS

1.       Mount the generated.iso by either selecting

a.       Connect to local iso image (on your pc)

b.      Connect to ISO Image on Datastore

                                                                           i.      Go to someDataStore and ISO Folder, select generated.iso

2.       Open Console and boot off of ISO. Choose from menu and install as needed.