ESXi 6.7 baremetal deployment not working on R730

running appliance version 5.0.0.1361

i'm attempting the "ISO Profile (ESXi installation)" install without the "System Profile (Configuration of the hardware)". bios settings and the local mirror raid were configured manually prior to the deployment wizard. and just to note, we've done many ESXi installs with this same appliance following the same steps successfully but this is the first time we're seeing this error.

i entered all the basic communication requirements in the baremetal deployment wizard. and the GUI goes through with no errors. OMIVV successfully boots up the server and begins the ESXi install, but once it starts reading the installation script at the grey/yellow screen, it errors out shortly after. first it shows the "network command not specified" error, followed up with the "no such file or directory" error as if there's a network communication issue. screenshots of both errors attached. there are no network firewalls in between the appliance and the idrac/esxi management IPs. and interestingly enough, i can ping the assigned ESXi management IP during these error screens... so the appliance IS passing some parameters to the host. The ESXi install just won't successfully complete.