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I have a Windows Server 2003 R2 installed on a physical server. For the first time, we want to virtualize this server. My question is about the installation part. I have the .iso CD. Do I simply pop it in, restart the server, and boot from the CD and proceed with the install? Will this wipe the Windows Server 2003 R2 Operating System, or do I need to wipe it first before installing ESXi?
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I have a Windows Server 2003 R2 installed on a physical server. For the first time, we want to virtualize this server. My question is about the installation part. I have the .iso CD. Do I simply pop it in, restart the server, and boot from the CD and proceed with the install? Will this wipe the Windows Server 2003 R2 Operating System, or do I need to wipe it first before installing ESXi?

VMWare ESXi Installation

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.

VMware

Virtualization is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, including (but not limited to) a virtual computer hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or computer network resources. Virtualization is usually the creation of a system that executes separate from the underlying hardware resources, or the creation of an entire desktop for systems located elsewhere, similar to thin clients.