ESX Starter Edition is a standalone ESX server (i.e. no Virtual Centre), available at a lower cost than the ESX Infrastructure editions but missing some useful functions. Some of those functions are the ability to convert virtual machines to templates simply by right-clicking on them, and deploying VM templates with a single mouse click. With the Starter Edition this is how you can get around it:

Create template
Install and configure your virtual machine exactly how you want it. Give it a generic name like "TEMPLATE" and leave it in a workgroup. If your template is a Windows 2003 server "sysprep it" by following this article. Power your VM down and your template is now ready.

Deploy the template
This is how it works:

  • Create a new Windows 2003 VM, configure the disk to be as small as possible
  • After creation, edit the VM settings and delete the disk
  • Open an SSH session to the ESX server using Putty
    • cd /vmfs/volumes/ESXservername\ storage/TEMPLATE
  • Copy the VM disk to the new machine:
    • cp *.vmdk ../new_server_name
  • In VIC, edit the settings of the VM, add a new disk, point it to /storage/new_server_name/disk_file.vmdk
  • Boot the VM up run through sysprep
  • Let it run for about five minutes while sysprep takes place, set computer name and NIC details etc when prompted
  • The server will then restart.
  • The server is now ready and just needs to be joined to the domain.

The whole process should take no longer than half an hour.

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