Installing VMWare ESX 3 on Dell 2900

So today I had the opportunity to install my first every ESX server from scratch. I installed ESX3.0.2.52542 on a Dell PowerEdge 2900. I've have some pictures I will be uploading later, detailing the installation process which, all told, took about 20 minutes! 20 minutes and you can take advantage of the power of server virtualization, how cool is that?

Edit: (10/16/07)

As promised here are the pics of the VMWare VI3 installation:

The first screen is the Linux Kernel loading.

Once the base Kernel has loaded, you'll see the ESX boot screen. Click on "Next" to begin.

Next, you select your keyboard layout.

Then you select your mouse configuration. In my case, I needed USB.

Now it's time for the license agreement, of course.

The next couple of screens are for your partition settings. You can pretty much leave these at the default settings, unless you know exactly what you're doing.

More partition settings

Still more partition settings

And finally, we have some... no wait, this is more partition settings. They're very particular about partition setting, eh?

Here you can configure advanced settings, such as partition settings. ;)

OK. So now that we've set all of the partitions, it's time to select our regional/time zone settings.

More timezone settings.

Now, odds are you're going to be connecting your ESX server to a network, right? Well, now's the time to type in the IP address, SNM, GW, PDNS and SDNS.

Next, you'll select your "root" password. Since this is Linux, "root" is the administrator. You can set up other administrators, with the same rights as root, once your install is complete. DO NOT LOSE THIS PASSWORD!!

Finally, review all of the settings you've entered. If you need to make any corrections, now is the time to go back and get that done. If everything looks good, click "Next" and you're off to the races!

Of course you'll see progress bar while the installation is underway.

Once the installtion is complete, which took about 20-30 minutes in my case, you'll see the "Installer Complete" screen.

And now you've seen the installation of VMWare ESX Server 3.0. Happy virtualizing!