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wadcyr8
Contributor
Contributor
‎11-23-2009 12:20 AM

Deploy ESXi 4 on several servers

Hi all,

i have to deploy ESXi on a kind of cluster. (one master node under linux and X slave nodes all the same config). I have already install ESXi 4 on the first node in order to test it and configure. And now i'd like do deploy (clone) it on on the other nodes. Do you know a way to do this automatically ? The only thing that changes between node is the IP address and i have set up a DHCP server on the master to solve that so if i could really clone the first node on the others it will be perfect.

So do you know a way to do that ? I was thinking to use Kadeploy but it does not support partitioning and even if i want to do partition mannually, Gparted does not recognize vmfs3 type of the datastore and visorfs of the / partition.

does anyone have an idea ?

thanks per advance and sorry for my english.

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6 Replies
J1mbo
Virtuoso
Virtuoso
‎11-23-2009 01:20 AM

The install takes like 5 mins each.., it's just not worth the bother. If you're booting USB's then you could use (eg) dd to clone them I suppose.

Please award points to any useful answer.

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wadcyr8
Contributor
Contributor
‎11-23-2009 01:33 AM

for many reason, booting on USB is not an option.

Concerning the installation, with many configurations/modification i made, it takes at least 30min multiple by the growing number of nodes it's very long time Smiley Happy

Moreover I need to automate this because i should be able to do the re-installation quite often. I made a non-common use of VMs and i often need back to bare-metal system installation.

but thanks for your help

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J1mbo
Virtuoso
Virtuoso
‎11-23-2009 01:48 AM

Host profiles are what you need..., but it's a licensed facility.

Please award points to any useful answer.

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wadcyr8
Contributor
Contributor
‎11-23-2009 01:59 AM

I don't really understand what you said. Is that an software ?

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Jain
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
‎11-23-2009 02:18 AM

It is a new feature in vSphere 4 , I think below video will help you understand better..

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

--------------------------------- *Jain* | VCP4 | +Please award points, if you found answer useful+
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wadcyr8
Contributor
Contributor
‎11-23-2009 02:28 AM

Yes it's seems to be au good thing, but as J1mbo said it's a licensed facility so i can't used it, i'm just looking for free solution.

Maybe i should see for using xcat tools ...

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