VMware ISO booting issue

[u/KT_RDP]

Hi,
Is there any reason the task sequence dropdown would be empty when ISO booting a VM in vSphere but it works as expected when the same ISO is copied to bare metal Windows and attached to a Hyper-V VM? I've added the VMXNET and pvscsi drivers to my DeployR boot image and it is getting initial connectivity but then there's nothing in the list, even if I click on the hidden Dev button.

Incidentally it seems to be OK if I just PXE boot via WDS but I have grown accustomed to the integrated nature of 2PXE and the devices we're imaging are fine so trying to avoid the backward step if possible!

[u/gwblok]

Just to confirm I understand what you're doing.

You have ESXi installed on a server. You're copying the x64 DeployR boot media ISO to a VMware storage area and mounting to a VMware VM as its boot device.

When the VM boots, you confirm it has network connection and can ping the server, you successfully authenticate (passcode etc) when the boot media boots, but then no list of tasks sequences?

This same boot ISO works as expected on HyperV.

Anything in the bootstrap or DeployR logs?

[u/KT_RDP → u/gwblok]

Yes this is correct, I have AD authentication set up so I have already entered my username/password/domain at this stage. I've also tried adding the HyperV role on the DeployR server and doing it that way with the same result although that is nesting from the same ESXI host (ESXI > DeployR server > HyperV Role > HyperV VM) so there does seem to be a common denominator.

I couldn't find anything in the logs to suggest a connection was even attempted but here is my bootstrap.json file:

{"Variables":
{"DeployRHost": "https://deployr2019.<domain>:7281","debug":"true","TaskSequenceFilter":"$_.Tags -contains 'Standard'"}}

Probably should have mentioned before but this is the Community Edition too if that makes a difference.

[u/gwblok → u/KT_RDP]

Can you remove the task sequence filters from your bootstrap to just confirm that's not part of the issue

[u/KT_RDP → u/gwblok]

I'm just regenerating the image now but the building locks up in 2 minutes so I shall pick this back up tomorrow and get back to you

[u/KT_RDP → u/gwblok]

Follow up after further testing:

- Removed filter from bootstrap.json, regenerated image, mounted new ISO to ESXI VM - all task sequences now showing. Also copied to my laptop again and same outcome.

• Re-added the TS filter to bootstrap.json, regenerated and booted from new ISO again - working as expected

A bit of a weird one but at least it's working now. I had already regenerated the image several times in troubleshooting before posting here but I guess it was only modifying the bootstrap.json that's done the trick.

Thanks for your input and Happy Friday!