OK, I've tried both methods, but ran into some problems. It's likely it's just something I'm doing wrong.
When I tried to install a new VM, here's the output I get after reboot, and firing up the new VM with Qemu: (sorry for the wall of text!)
Warning. Could not determine the CPU Family.model name : QEMU Virtual CPU version 2.4.0
*** do_prep_pacman_variables ***
*** do_load_nvram_drivers ***
*** do_determine_platform_id ***
extreme_board_id = 0xFFEF0001
platform_rev = 1
platform_id = 65519
*** do_conditional_wait_for_mmc ***
*** do_determine_preferred_fs_type ***
*** do_conditional_summit_platform_determinations ***
*** do_conditional_terminal_reset ***
*** do_conditional_image_banner ***
*** do_prep_partition_variables_CF ***
*** do_determine_lvm ***
*** do_check_for_rescue ***
*** do_load_watchdog_module ***
*** do_overheat_var_check ***
*** do_prep_fstab ***
*** do_validate_all_vfat ***
***** checking filesystem: dosfsck -y -w /dev/hda1
***** checking filesystem: dosfsck -y -w /dev/hda2
***** checking filesystem: dosfsck -y -w /dev/hda8
*** do_conditional_perform_sync ***
*** do_mount_slash_boot ***
***** checking filesystem: dosfsck -y -w -/dev/hda1
*** boot filesystem mounted on /boot
*** do_conditional_platform_config ***
*** do_conditional_display_pacman_menu ***
==========================
===== developer menu =====
==========================
1) enable perf hooks.........."false"
2) boot_cf_alt_fsck..........."true"
3) boot_cf_config_fsck........"true"
4) boot_debug................."false"
management port settings
5a) boot_ipaddr (non-stack)..""
5a1) boot_ipaddr (slot 1)....""
5a2) boot_ipaddr (slot 2)....""
5a3) boot_ipaddr (slot 3)....""
5a4) boot_ipaddr (slot 4)....""
5a5) boot_ipaddr (slot 5)....""
5a6) boot_ipaddr (slot 6)....""
5a7) boot_ipaddr (slot 7)....""
5a8) boot_ipaddr (slot ļ....""
5c) boot_netmask............."255.255.255.0"
5d) boot_broadcast...........""
5e) boot_gateway.............""
var partition settings
6a) var partition............"tmp" [tmp, nfs or extcf]
6b) nfs var mount............""
exos settings
7a) start exos at boot......."true"
7b) enable heap tracing......"false"
7c) allow /var log file......"false"
7d) node failure restart....."true"
7e) mount exos from.........."local" [local, nfs]
7f) nfs exos mount...........""
7g) nvram core dump info....."show_clear"
7h) debug mode..............."false"
7i) environment vars.........""
pacman settings
8a) pacman autostart........."false"
8b) pacman autostart delay..."5"
l) load settings from system.cfg on hda1
o) back to original settings
s) save settings to system.cfg on hda1
copy) show settings for COPY
paste) read settings from PASTE
r) reboot
c) continue with boot process
~> c
*** do_initialize_ramdisk ***
*** do_conditional_publicize_lvm ***
*** do_development_options ***
rootdisk created Tue Oct 6 19:07:05 EDT 2015
*** do_check_filesystems ***
*** do_mount_filesystems ***
*** do_conditional_shell ***
BusyBox v1.13.4 (2015-10-06 19:06:46 EDT) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
~ #
When I tried to use my existing 15.3 exosvm.vmdk image, and put the exospc-16.1.2.14.xos image in a tftp server (Debian Jessie w/tftpd-hpa), "download image exospc-16.1.2.14.xos secondary" keeps giving this error:
Downloading to SwitchError: Failed to download image - tftp: sendto: Network is unreachable
Both VMs have IP reachability (same subnet) to one another (they're literally cross-connected, and the only devices on the "network") , and the tftpd-hpa server has no restrictions, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong with this, either.
Any help pointing out what I'm doing wrong would be greatly appreciated!