Use Virtual Machine as boot server

[manmountain]

Hi Folks, Is it possible to use a Linux Virtual machine as a boot server and use this boot server to perform BMR's on a real Linux machine?

[Nicolai · Accepted solution]

That will be a gentle yes. The devil is in the details. How do intend to use the BMR server. Will you generate  ISO for booting or will you remote boot servers with PXE ?. PXE booting on VMware may be a issue if the ESX server doesn't allow traffic on layer 2 (MAC) but only level 3 (IP). 

[manmountain]

Hi Nicolai, I would be hoping to use boot servers on VM for PXE booting as I belive it would be the easiest option in many aspects. 

[mandar_khanolka]

Yes, it is absolutely possible to use VM based Boot server for PXE based recovery. Please take care of the point Nicolai mentioned i.e. ESX server configuration should allow PXE, DHCP, TFTP packets to VM virtual network. I believe by default it would work for you. This is tested scenario in BMR lab.

thanks.

mandar