1. A method to install a hardware management system on a management switch, the method comprising: in response to a power-on event of a management switch, executing a boot loader on the management switch to boot an operating system on the management switch; obtaining from a virtual imaging appliance in communication with the management switch a uniform resource locator of a network-accessible location of installer software to install the hardware management system, the virtual imaging appliance to configure a physical rack of hardware for use as a virtual server rack, and the hardware management system to manage the hardware for use in the virtual server rack; and installing the hardware management system on the management switch using the installer software obtained from the network-accessible location.