I rebuild my systems very frequently – especially with testing the UDA to add new options to my %post scripts. One thing I like is if after pressing F12 and starting install is to close down the ILO on my HP servers – and have the kickstart script send me message when all the work is done.
Update:
This post has changed. I replaced the dangerous rm -f -r /tmp/udasource with the safer rmdir /tmp/udasource
This post has changed. I replaced the RW option with RO again
It is possible to script the installation of hardware management agents using the UDA as the source of the code, and the kickstart file to automate the installation. In this example I’ve scripted the installation of the HP Insight Management Agents mainly because that’s the hardware type I run on – however, these principles could be applied to other vendors hardware agents. Personally, I don’t possess any IBM Hardware or any modern Dell hardware to create a similiar script and then test it properly. I would like someone (using the exactly the same method below for consistency) to validate/document the process for IBM/Dell servers. This way I can give this sample code to Carl (the developer of the UDA) as templates from which he can automate this manual process for the next UDA release. I hoping that Carl will be able to write an upload, extract and edit function to the UDA.
Step One: First enable NFS on the UDA
You might find you have problems creating local VMFS volumes using the UDA’s partition tool. This affects many systems specifically HP servers. VMware KB 8577703 acknowledges the problem:
“During an ESX Server 3.0.1 scripted installation on SCSI controllers that use the cciss driver, VMFS3 volumes might not be correctly created. To address this issue, ensure the entry for the volume is listed in the /etc/vmware/vmfs3queue. This entry indicates that the VMFS volume will be formatted and created upon reboot of the ESX Server system.”
There is a simplier work-around using vmkfstools. Here is an example…
UDA 1.4 might not correctly set the right NIC for your Service Console network. This is by design, and the cause is the difference between the way Anaconda Install and the ESX vmkernel enumerate devices. The best way to assign the right is using the kickstart %post section.
You can remove the NIC for the Service Console with:
esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic0 vSwitch0
and assign your preferred NIC with
esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic5 vSwitch0
Note:
The esxcfg command is case-sensitive. So -L and -U are in UPPER-CASE.
This week I have been the Netherlands teaching the VMware Authorised Vi3 course “Install and Configure”. I took the opportunity to meet up with Carl Thijssen – the creator of the UDA (the Ultimate Deployment Appliance). It was great to finally meet up with Carl, and to escape my awful hotel and its awful food!
We discussed the UDA, VMware and virtualisation generally – and chatted about the eternal problem of delivering computing environments to desktop end-users.
UDA 1.4 is now completed mirrored on two servers. This mirror contains all the files for the UDA both in the Workstation and ESX formats. It also includes my PDF getting-started document and sample ESX 3.x.x files. This has been very kindly provided by Chris Hills of North East Worcestershire College, in the UK. The UDA is mirror on Chris’s personal website and also on JANET, the UK wide University & College internetwork.
Chris does a very nice line in pre-packaged VMware Virtual Machine containing many different Linux distributions including Fedora Core 7, GentOS and Debian. If your interest in Linux generally or Linux in a Virtual Machine its well work checking out.
UDA Home Page: http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?page_id=366
Chris Hills Home Blog: http://chaz6.com/
If you are having problems with the UDA, it could be that you are experiencing more general network, NIC, DHCP or even physical switch problems. This would affect other PXE appliances like Alteris also. I found a very good round-up of typical Anaconda network problems here. You might find this help page useful too.
Link:
I’ve just updated the sample kickstart scripts – to include two new things. Firstly, a correction to the use vimsh to enable VMotion on VMkernel Port Group. I need a restart of the VMware Management Service on the ESX host together with a brief sleep… additionally, I’ve also add the Ignoredisk attribute to ignore LUNs on the SAN to prevent kickstart from initialising or partitioning a SAN LUN accidentally.
Link:
In a lot of the course I teach, the physical equipment is often a long distance away. We usually connect to it by Citrix or Terminal Services – and use the ILO+Virtual Media (or even physical CD duck-tapped into the drives!) to carry out the ESX install in classroom exercises. I now have a similiar system of my own – my own personal VDC (Virtual DataCenter) if you like. It consists of 4 HP Proliant DL385 (AMD Dual-Core) and two Dell 1U server which run the virtual machines needed to work remotely (Domain Controllers (x2), Citrix Servers (x2) Microsoft SQL and VirtualCenter).
One thing that has always annoyed me about using ILOs was the number of SSL certificate security prompts. Before beginning this post I thought I would count them. There were 1 prompts for the logon page and 3 for the Java security if you use the untrusted auto-signed SSL Certificates created by the ILO – there was also 1 prompt for using virtual media. That 4 prompts altogether!
So last week I took a look at creating my own self-trusted certificates for my VDC. As Citrix MetaFrame across the internet needs certificates to work, I’ve always run my own root Certificate Authority rather than paying for certificates from an ISP or Verisign – plus its more fun to do your own security. I found the process was suprisingly easy, and wondered why more “VDC” environments didn’t do this as well. Here’s how its done
I was getting frustrated trying to find the HP Insight Management Agent for ESX. I mean really frustrated. It must be one of those days. So in the Search box I constructed this elegant query in capitals:
“WHERE THE **** IS THE HP SIM MANAGEMENT AGENT FOR ESX ON THIS LOUSY WEBSITE?”
Sure enough – I hit search and finds what I wanted immediately. It goes to show that swearing and loosing your temper sometimes does get results! 
Update: Actually since writing this post a couple of days ago two readers (David Marconi and Ralph Spencer) have contacted me to say there are new versions of the HP Insight Management Agents for ESX. I’ve updated my link reflect the links they sent me. Thanks guys!
Link:
http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/26407.html
and more generic link for searching for HP related drivers generally:
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