ZENworks PXE VMware

ZENworks imaging can give you a powerfull imaging environment with a lot of options to adjust and manage your images, and with that your workstations. There are a few ways to image your workstations, using a bootable CD or DVD and then through the network, using a bootable CD or DVD to image without the network, and the way I use the most, through PXE. PXE stands for Preboot eXecution Environment and makes it possible for a workstation to boot through the network, and in our case put an image on the workstation. The thing is, I'm used to make a lot of changes to an image before I take it into production, and changes need to be tested. Because I don't always have a spare workstation I like to use VMware server for this… but that doesn't work…

I receive this error screen when I try to image. Ah well, receive… pressing <ESC> gets me this screen after waiting too long for the next screen to pop up:

If you want to use the ZENworks imaging environment inside a vmware workstation you'll have to edit the .vmx file from the machine. Change the line scsi0.present = “TRUE” to scsi0.present = “FALSE”:

config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "4"
scsi0.present = "FALSE"
memsize = "512"
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "Windows XP Professional.vmdk"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "C:\ISO\WinXP-x86-pe.iso"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"
floppy0.present = "FALSE"
Ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
displayName = "Windows XP Professional SP3"
guestOS = "winxppro"
priority.grabbed = "normal"
priority.ungrabbed = "normal"

ide0:0.redo = ""
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
uuid.location = "56 4d cd e9 6b de 6d 2c-45 9a b8 50 8e 0e 02 f2"
uuid.bios = "56 4d cd e9 6b de 6d 2c-45 9a b8 50 8e 0e 02 f2"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:0e:02:f2"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

Furthermore, you could also choose to add this line to the file to make sure you have a correct working NIC:

ethernet0.virtualDev="e1000"

Wikipedia PXE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment VMware Server Homepage: http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ This solution was found by Erik Roozen… thank you!