How do I install VMware ESX Server 3i on laptop

From the Console you can only access the command line. You will need to connect it to a network and then access the WebGUI via the IP address you gave the server.

Since you'll need another machine to access ESXi if it's installed on your laptop a better solution is VMWare Workstation (has a cost) or VMWare Server (running on top of XP or Vista which is free)

If you are interested then please have a look at this article which provides a step by step guide in order to run VMware ESXi using VMware Server 2.0 just for the purposes of demonstration or testing.

How to Install ESX 3.5 and ESXi as a VM on VMware Server 2.0 - http://knowledge.xtravirt.com/white-papers/esx-3x.html

In this case you wouldnt need a second Computer to connect and check out the features of ESXi.

I went ahead and reloaded Vista and then loaded VMWare Server 2.0 with the instructions from the link above. I am currently stuck on the installation. It says vmkernal loaded successfully. It has been here for about 30 minutes with no repsonse. Any clues?

1, configure the VM server's IP address at the console. this will enable an web server running at the IP you specify.

2. access the web server from a windows client, download the management software for windows (VI Client).

3. create and manage virtual machines using this management software,k as what you do using VMware Workstation.

hope it helps,
bbao

I was able to get VMWare workstation to work. I probably would have been able to get Server 2.0 to work, but I forgot to enable virtualization in both places in BIOS.  

Here's my next obstacle. I have downloaded the VIC. When I attempt to create a new VM, I only have 16 GB available in my datastore, but I allocated 80 GB to the ESXi hard drive. Am I missing something here?

The other thing is it runs really, really slow. I know I am using a laptop, but it's a quick one. I loaded a copy of Server 2008 in Workstation and it takes forever to do anything.

One last question . . . for now. Can I import my server 2008 VM into ESXi? Just to refresh, I have VMWare workstion running on the laptop. Then I have ESXi and 1 copy of MS Server 2008. I would like to import the Server VM into ESXi, make some changes to the machine name, IP, etc, then import a second copy and rename it also.

1.  Check the speed of your hard drive, most laptop drives are not 7200rpm and laptop drives in general have less I/O.  This is the main stumbling block for using VMWare on a laptop.  I've had better results using VMWare workstation and a USB/Firewire hardrive off the laptop due to this issue
2.  Check how much memory you're using for the VMs.

The hard drive is 7200. rpm

Does anyone have any new info for me? I still can't figure out why my data store only has 15 GB, but I allocated 80 GB to my ESXi VM in VMWare Workstation.

Also, can I import an existing VM into my ESXi VM?

I think I am on my last issue. Networking. My laptop is connected to our wireless network. 192.168.20.0. Gateway is .1. My ESXi server is 20.101. I gave the Windows server VM 20.150. I can ping the ESXi server from the server VM, but cannot get out to the internet. I have tried pinging a public DNS server that I know replies (4.2.2.2) and no luck. i confirmed that the gateway is 20.1 and that the correct DNS servers are configured in the server VM.

Any ideas?

Make sure your ESXi server is configured with the correct DNS/DG as well as your VM.  

I confirmed the ESXi server is configured correctly. I went into the ESXi server and tried the network test feature and everything failed. All IP addresses are correct. So I minimized everything down to my main OS and attempted to get out to the Inet and it worked. Am I missing some sort of routing set up within ESXi?

This is a problem with my wireless network. Not sure exactly what the problem is, but soon as I connected a cable to my test network all was well. Thanks to everyone who helped.

I believe wireless is still an issue in 4.0