Posting this to ESXi 4 specific forum, given the nature of the question. Ok, here is the problem, we have HP, Dell, IBM, etc. hardware. Each vendor has their own respective ESXi images or at a minimum methods to 'inject' code into the ESXi baseline image. So the net result is there are multiple images, each vendor has their own. The question is, in a stateless model, how do you determine which image to download via PXE? The only way I can think to do this, is to establish the different variants of the ESXi 4 stateless image for each hardware vendor, ok not so difficult. Thus the command-line parameters for the boot kernel can be hardware specific. However, this is a static assignment, not automated hardware selection process. Somewhere some how, the hardware vendor has to be known. Ok, in a database, or such, which is cross linked to the MAC address, that can work, I think, although I have worked out all the issues. Moreover, of course if a node/hardware is swapped, and the vendor changes, then the database/MAC address information has to be updated. This is not very elegant, and feels like a cludge. So has anyone else tackled this issue?
Since all the vendors use 3rd party NICs, you can only maintain MAC database to determine which MAC from which server. Otherwise use VMware image, without vendor-specific agents.
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VMware vExpert '2009
Since all the vendors use 3rd party NICs, you can only maintain MAC database to determine which MAC from which server. Otherwise use VMware image, without vendor-specific agents.
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VMware vExpert '2009
In a MAC address, the first 3 octets are called the OUI (in AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF, AA:BB:CC). This information is registered to a company.
I believe all of my servers and desktops that have LoMs (LAN on Motherboard), the OUI of the default MAC address is registered to the OEM (Dell system has OUI registered to Dell, HP to HP, IBM to IBM, etc.). This is probably true for the major OEMs but may or may not be true for the lesser OEMs. I say default as it is the one hard-coded into the NIC ROM and used by default by the NIC driver and always used by the PXE system. Most drivers allow you to use a different MAC if manually configured.
However, add-in NICs may either have an OUI from the OEM or from the third-party manufacturer of the NIC. All of the NICs I have have MACs with OUIs registered to the manufacturer of the card (Intel, Broadcom, etc).
The IEEE maintains the official database (they are the registration authority) and can be searched from http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml (This is also the first result from a Google search of "oui"). NMap, a port scanner, also has a text file that contains this data however it is technically not official and may also be outdated, depending on the version of NMap you have. I have seen some systems with an OUI where the registered name is WW PCBA Test, however the address is for Dell (00:0F:1F is the OUI in question).
Actually I thought I closed this thread... BUT... your information is a great explanation. Will save others from digging, I dug.
I believe you've tagged the question thread as answered with Anton's
comment but not closed.
I think the best alternative is a hybrid approach. Use the OUI to
double check when a new server first arrives but use the exact MAC
address to ensure you have the correct server (knowing the exact
manufacturer, model, and enclosed hardware), especially if some of the
servers can not support ESX/ESXi 4.0.
On Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 12:53 PM,