So,
The whole story is, I'm setting up about 40 ESXi servers in remote locations around the world. We will not have local technictions available on site at most of them.
I'm looking to automate as much of this process as possible, from getting iLO and the RAID array's configured, then the ESXi install, and hopefully coping the 32GB template for windows to the datastore.
I've the array and iLO figured out, with HP's SmartStart scripting toolkit:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/toolkit/index.html
and have created a USB key to do the ESXi install from here:
http://vinternals.com/2009/07/unattended-esxi-installation/
The 2 pieces I'm still missing are:
-Scripting the setup for network and storage. I can see all the python scripts, but don't know enough python to be able to insert what I need to do (can I even do that?? , or do I have to run a post-install script once the system re-boots?)
-Coping the template to the data store, it seems that once ESXi is installed, USB support goes away and I cannot mount the darn thing, therefore cannot copy the file to the datstore. Currently I'm leaning towards a windows SCP batch file from a local PC, but that seems slow and Cludgey.
Any help would be greatly appreaciated.
DanV
