Booting the System for Software Installation

Perform the following steps to prepare the system hardware and boot the system for the software installation.

  1. Install and configure the system hardware as described in Installing and Connecting the ztC Endurance System Hardware. After installing the system hardware in a cabinet, at a minimum:

    1. In both I/O modules, connect network cables from 10G PORT2 to a business network and from 1G MGMT port to an out-of-band management network.

    2. Connect a monitor and keyboard to compute module B, from which you will initiate the software installation.

      Note: No mouse is needed for the local console of the system, because the Standby OS and VMware ESXi have text-based user interfaces.

    For a diagram showing the location of the network and USB ports, see System Ports.

  2. Optionally, connect another monitor and keyboard to compute module A if you want to verify that the Standby OS is running and view the automated installation that will occur on that module; however, do not interfere with the automated installation.

  3. For both PSUs, connect power cords from the power inlets to supported power sources. For more information, see Connecting the System to Electrical Power.

  4. Insert a minimum of one blank disk into the top-left slot of each storage module to install as system disks. If needed, insert additional disk pairs into the matching slots of each storage module to prepare as data disks. You can insert these disks now or at a later time. Any pairs of data disks present in the system are mirrored automatically during the installation process, but you need to configure them after installation to make them available as datastores to the ESXi host, as summarized in Adding and Mirroring Data Disks.

  5. Download the VMware ESXi ISO as described in Downloading VMware ESXi and VMware vSphere Software Components and copy the ISO file to a USB device. Mount the USB device and optionally transfer the ESXi ISO to the system as described in Transferring Software ISOs to the Standby OS.

  6. When you are ready to begin the software installation, power on the system. Both compute modules in the system start the Standby OS. Because VMware ESXi will be installed on compute module A, this module takes control of all devices in the I/O modules (including the disks) in preparation for the software installation; however, you control the installation from the console of compute module B.

  7. Continue to install the system software as described in Installing VMware ESXi and Deploying the Management VM.