Ultimate Deployment Appliance

[VMTN_Admin]

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/232

Deploy your favorite OS by pressing F12, bring your own ISO's, we'll do the rest

[silver163]

hello,

i got 5 computers and I want to network boot and install windows xp onto them all at the same time. I got UDA in VMWare Workstation running but now what I do? How do I connect? I am completely new to this.

[Funtoosh]

I have installed new UDA server to deploy ESX using Mike Laverick’s document. I installed UDA on ESX which has untagged N/W .

UDA server IP address is x.x.x.x.

I used the DHCP server where above IP address has been defined and made changes on 066 and 067 as I wanted to use DHCP server running in my network.

I created kick start file as per the document and then created new test VM on the same network as UDA on same host (Just to test functionality ). Booted the VM to see if it all connect to UDA but to my surprise it connect to my other PXE server running MDT and start downloading image from there.

I tried:

1. Binding the MAC of the test machine

2. Made 066 and 067 changes to all the available DHCP server in our network.

I really don’t have clue how to start troubleshooting and from where to start it from.

If anyone can guide me that would be great help as I am desperately want this to work

Not SURE why it got posted 4 times.

[Funtoosh]

I have installed new UDA server to deploy ESX using Mike Laverick’s document. I installed UDA on ESX which has untagged N/W .

UDA server IP address is x.x.x.x.

I used the DHCP server where above IP address has been defined and made changes on 066 and 067 as I wanted to use DHCP server running in my network.

I created kick start file as per the document and then created new test VM on the same network as UDA on same host (Just to test functionality ). Booted the VM to see if it all connect to UDA but to my surprise it connect to my other PXE server running MDT and start downloading image from there.

I tried:

1. Binding the MAC of the test machine

2. Made 066 and 067 changes to all the available DHCP server in our network.

I really don’t have clue how to start troubleshooting and from where to start it from.

If anyone can guide me that would be great help as I am desperately want this to work

[Funtoosh]

I have installed new UDA server to deploy ESX using Mike Laverick’s document. I installed UDA on ESX which has untagged N/W .

UDA server IP address is x.x.x.x.

I used the DHCP server where above IP address has been defined and made changes on 066 and 067 as I wanted to use DHCP server running in my network.

I created kick start file as per the document and then created new test VM on the same network as UDA on same host (Just to test functionality ). Booted the VM to see if it all connect to UDA but to my surprise it connect to my other PXE server running MDT and start downloading image from there.

I tried:

1. Binding the MAC of the test machine

2. Made 066 and 067 changes to all the available DHCP server in our network.

I really don’t have clue how to start troubleshooting and from where to start it from.

If anyone can guide me that would be great help as I am desperately want this to work

[Funtoosh]

I have installed new UDA server to deploy ESX using Mike Laverick’s document. I installed UDA on ESX which has untagged N/W .

UDA server IP address is x.x.x.x.

I used the DHCP server where above IP address has been defined and made changes on 066 and 067 as I wanted to use DHCP server running in my network.

I created kick start file as per the document and then created new test VM on the same network as UDA on same host (Just to test functionality ). Booted the VM to see if it all connect to UDA but to my surprise it connect to my other PXE server running MDT and start downloading image from there.

I tried:

1. Binding the MAC of the test machine

2. Made 066 and 067 changes to all the available DHCP server in our network.

I really don’t have clue how to start troubleshooting and from where to start it from.

If anyone can guide me that would be great help as I am desperately want this to work

I have tired to implement the same but was not successful.

Thanks,

Funtoosh

Solution: I made it working:

I checked boothelper IP on the router and figured out that I am missing UDA IP address. I added and started working but then I did not wanted to mess my MDT/WDS environment. I then created a separate VLAN and moved my UDA as well test ESX host into it. Now when my physical DL380 boots I get UDA boo menu. Thanks all for your help on this. I got new problem for which I will open thread.

[Funtoosh]

Have you ever to solve this ? If yes please help I am into same exact situation

"After that now its picking up the script but getting stuck at copying the image netstg2.img on to the server -

On the screen it says -

Unable to retrieve the install image

When i check on screen with AltF3 it says -+

*transferring to a fd

It keeps waiting there for ever and ever .

"

Thanks,

Funtoosh

[Funtoosh]

Hi,

I was getting message that "unable to retrive of UDA>//esx/esx301/vmware/base/netstg2.img " I followed your instruction and used

"append ip=dhcp ksdevice=eth8 load_ramdisk=1 initrd=initrd.esx350 network ks=http://<IP of UDA>/kickstart/test2.cfg". I am trying to deplyo ESX3.5U4 by copying it to disk2. I unmounted and remounted this but without any luck. No matter what appliance I use UDA/EDA and both get stuck at same result.

Any help would be highly appriciated.

Thanks

Funtoosh

[Michelle_Laveri]

I'm pleased to annouce that Carl has done the biz again - and UDA2.0 beta has been released.

This works with ESX4 "Classic". I will have PDF setup guide to follow very shortly

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=1266

Regards

Mike Laverick

RTFM Education

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk

Author of the SRM Book: http://www.lulu.com/content/4343147

[unsichtbare]

I have downloaded this, converted it to VMFS and have it running in ESXi 4.0. It looks great!

One small issue; with Windows, if I edit the answer file at all, the template stops working and the OS will not install, Any ideas:

-John

[_the_dude_]

That's a known bug indeed, please check out on how to solve it:

http://www.ultimatedeployment.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=328

[romorio]

pls can you activate my account romorio again

thx

rob

A new message was posted in the thread "Ultimate Deployment Appliance":

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1274889#1274889

Author : thedude_

Profile : http://communities.vmware.com/people/_the_dude_

Message:hello

[romorio]

hello,

i start playin with the uda-2.0 beta application.

In the configuration i am missing the option to specy the dhcp range

which van be used in the uda 2.0 versrion

pls update the config menu so we can specify the value for the labels

range

regards rob

[Funtoosh]

I would like to thank each one of you who has really helped me to make this working.

It finally worked after changing my ESX host in the same range of UDA. Now I got real challenge how do I form a process so that my server build team should be capable of building ESX host.

• 1. My UDA is in build VLAN which is dedicated for ESX build. My ESX service console generally lies on its own dedicated VLAN. This is trunked VLAN and I can not enable DHCP for PXE booting. Also my ESX run per environment basis like PROD/DEV/TESTING. Which means after building ESX I need to go through changing IP exercise? If I allow someone to do then I have to give him root privilege which I don't want to.

What do you think would be best way to work out this?

• 2. For every host build I need to create/modify the script. Is there a way that I use a general standard build and supply IP address /Host name and stuff like that input file . This way I don't have to allow everyone to login to UDA.

[Funtoosh]

I would like to share my automaed ESX deployment experiance

[Goliath222]

Hello,

tried to install ESX 4 with the new UDA 2.0. No luck so far. It always stops after getting the tftp image, once it is creating the vswif0 it creates it with the wrong adapter.

Message is: no COS Adapters specified in the Users settings, always vmnic0 is chosen, no matter what I specify in the ks file. Any one found a workarround for this ?

Here the sample from my ks file ( IPs changed )

1. Network install type

2. network --bootproto=dhcp --device=vmnic4

network --bootproto=static --device=vmnic4 --ip=105.136.243.71 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --gateway=105.136.243.1 --nameserver=105.136.243.11 --hostname=esxhost.dom.local

Also tried the workarround with the MAC Adress change specified on another place :

echo "### Configuring ESX Firewall to allow all ports incoming and outgoing traffic" >> /root/ri.log

esxcfg-firewall --AllowIncoming >> /root/ri.log

esxcfg-firewall --AllowOutgoing >> /root/ri.log

echo "" >> /root/ri.log

echo "### Configuring sshd to allow root login - see /etc/ssh/sshd_config" >> /root/ri.log

sed -i 's/PermitRootLogin no/PermitRootLogin yes/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config

cat /etc/ssh/sshd_config |grep PermitRootLogin >> /root/ri.log

echo "" >> /root/ri.log

echo "Changing MAC of vswif0 to match that of installation nic" >> /root/ri.log ########## change MAC########

%post --nochroot

cp /mnt/sysimage/bin/awk /sbin

sed -i '/^MACADDR/d' /mnt/sysimage/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-vswif0

echo "MACADDR=`ifconfig vmnic0 |grep HWaddr |awk '{print $5}'`" >> /mnt/sysimage/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-vswif0

cat /mnt/sysimage/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-vswif0 |grep MACADDR >> /mnt/sysimage/root/ri.log

The ESX has 8 Network Interfaces and Interface 3 and 4 are configured for service console and VMKernel. We have no possibility to change this, cause it's a Blade system automatically selecting the interfaces to the uplink ports...

Regards

Oliver

[Michelle_Laveri]

that message

"no COS Adapters specified in the Users settings"

Is really funny one. I don't know what it means. No-one in VMware has ever been able to explain it to me...

And I get it even when my scripted install works...!!!

So it maybe an error in our scripts OR some sort "beign" error message...

I notice your device = vmnic4... is that a valid reference? Can't check my own system as i am away. I would try eth0/2/3/4 to see if that helps...

Regards

Mike Laverick

RTFM Education

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk

Author of the SRM Book: http://www.lulu.com/content/4343147

[Goliath222]

Hello Mike,

thx for your quick help. I found that when I press ALT+F2 in that state I can display the contents of vswif0 and see that it is mapped to the wrong interface vmnic0. In ESX 3 it was possible to choose the interface to install from but this is competely automated in V. 4...

I'll try opening a ticket with VMware too, maybe they already have a solution for this.

Best Regards

Oliver

[Michelle_Laveri]

Yeah, we used to use ksdevice=eth0 at the kickstart cmd-line, and eth0 in the ks file.

I'm fortunate - in that it doesn't matter whic i use...

Let us know what you hear back from VMware...

Regards

Mike Laverick

RTFM Education

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk

Author of the SRM Book: http://www.lulu.com/content/4343147

[Michelle_Laveri]

Just quickly checking the installation PDF:

netdevice= when looking for an

installation script and installation media. Specify as a MAC

address (for example, 00:50:56:C0:00:01). If not specified and

files need to be retrieved over the network, the installer defaults

to the first discovered network adapter.

The IPAPPEND option is also supported if you PXE boot the

installer.

Regards

Mike Laverick

RTFM Education

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk

Author of the SRM Book: http://www.lulu.com/content/4343147

[Gabrie1]

Hello,

tried to install ESX 4 with the new UDA 2.0. No luck so far. It always stops after getting the tftp image, once it is creating the vswif0 it creates it with the wrong adapter.

Message is: no COS Adapters specified in the Users settings, always vmnic0 is chosen, no matter what I specify in the ks file. Any one found a workarround for this ?

I had this happen with my new Whitebox. Nic1 is Realtek RTL8111B adapter and I booted from it and PXE started installing. The other nic (Intel dual port) had no cables in it. My install halted with the same error, but when I plugin one of the ports on the dual nic, it all works fine. After installation I noticed that the Realtek is not seen by ESX. So I guess that is what was the problem during install, it can't find a valid nic