ESX deployment appliance v1.05

[brugh]

https://solutionexchange.vmware.com/store/products/esx-deployment-appliance-eda

ESX Deployment Appliance (EDA) is a small and easy to use appliance

that makes deploying ESX servers a breeze. It has a very intuitive

web-interface that can configure and deploy dozens of ESX servers in

minutes. It has a script-builder that will allow any admin to create

%post-scripts that will do most anything one needs to get the ESX hosts

up and running! Even if deploying with RDP/Altiris or the UDA, this

script-builder can help setting those up very quickly.

[Funtoosh]

One more error message

[alasdair_carnie]

Hi Guys,

Is there a variable available to create another VMKernel Port for accessing IP Storage? I need to deploy around 60 ESX Hosts and each needs a unique address for accessing our NFS and iSCSI Storage and it's on a different subnet from vMotion.

Thanks,

Alasdair..........

[twashburn]

Hello, I've just finished configuring the EDA appliance and setting up the hosts to connect to it.

I'm getting the hosts to connect to the Appliance without a problem, during installation however, I get the attached error which would occur right about when a normal installation would be asking me what language I want to use.

Here's a copy of one of the ks scripts from the EDA appliance, I'm running at version 0.87-1 on a VM running in an ESXi environment. The hosts I'm trying to deploy on are Sun Blades and the media loaded on the EDA appliance for deployment is ESX 3.5 update 4.

anything enclosed in {} are placeholders for the purpose of this post.

rootpw --iscrypted {.}


bootloader --location=mbr --driveorder=--drives


timezone America/New_York


skipx


install


text


lang en_US


langsupport --default en_US


keyboard us


mouse none


reboot


firewall --disabled


url --url [/]{EDA_IP_Address}/esx/




network --bootproto static --device eth0 --ip {host-ip} --netmask {netmask} --gateway {host gateway} --nameserver {dns server} --hostname {hostname.domain.com} --addvmportgroup=0




clearpart --all --initlabel --drives=sda


part /boot --fstype ext3 --size 250 --ondisk=sda --asprimary


part swap --size 1600 --ondisk=sda --asprimary


part / --fstype ext3 --size 10240 --ondisk=sda --asprimary


part /var --fstype ext3 --size 2048 --ondisk=sda


part /opt --fstype ext3 --size 2048 --ondisk=sda


part /tmp --fstype ext3 --size 2048 --ondisk=sda


part None --fstype vmfs3 --size 1 --grow --ondisk=sda


part None --fstype vmkcore --size 100 --ondisk=sda




vmaccepteula


vmlicense --mode=server --server=27000@{vCenter Server} --edition=esxFull


%packages


@base




%post


cat > /tmp/esxcfg.sh <<EOF1


#!/bin/bash


esxcfg-firewall --allowOutGoing




esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic2 vSwitch0




vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicorderpolicy-active vmnic0 vSwitch0 'Service Console'


vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicorderpolicy-standby vmnic2 vSwitch0 'Service Console'




esxcfg-vswitch -A VMkernel vSwitch0


 


 


## Dont edit the next line! check ks link in table of ESX hosts for outputesxcfg-vmknic -a VMkernel -i {VMkernel IP} -n {netmask}


service mgmt-vmware restart


sleep 10


while ; do


sleep 10


echo Waiting for hostd to accept connections..


done


vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set vmk0




vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicorderpolicy-active vmnic2 vSwitch0 'VMkernel'


vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicorderpolicy-standby vmnic0 vSwitch0 'VMkernel'




esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch1




esxcfg-vswitch -A vlan10 




esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 vSwitch1




esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic3 vSwitch1




esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic4 vSwitch1




esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic5 vSwitch1




esxcfg-firewall --blockOutgoing


EOF1





## Make esxcfg.sh eXcutablechmod +x /tmp/esxcfg.sh





## Backup original rc.local filecp /etc/rc.d/rc.local /etc/rc.d/rc.local.bak





## Make esxcfg.sh run from rc.local and make rc.local reset itselfcat >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local <<EOF2


cd /tmp


/tmp/esxcfg.sh


mv -f /etc/rc.d/rc.local.bak /etc/rc.d/rc.local


EOF2

Thanks,

Tim

[Funtoosh]

No ONE can help me ??

[smittycsi]

I am using EDA in a vmware wkst 6.5 in a closed network to the host machine evrything works up to the point where it installs ,it starts install but seems to not pay any attention to the script and stops on select language .I saw a previuose post that said to step through manually and use http as the source but then i get no driver found .Is this because of my esx trying to install into vmware wkst and cant find the driver to get the sripted setup ??

Thanks

[bol4770]

Hi there,

A very nifty and efficient deployment tool - Thanks for your efforts in creating this tool. However, may I bring to your attention a 'Bug' in version 0.87 which I hope would be corrected in later version. The hostname field does NOT handle a numeric suffix at the end of the hostname. For instance as in our environment and others too, if you have a naming convention where your ESX host servers are named: esxserver01, esxserver02, esxserver03 and so on. The Deployment Appliance tends to strip out the '0' digit and renames the hostname esxserver1 instead of the intended esxserver01. Please can you see if this can be corrected in the next version. In the meatime, do you have a workaround that you can suggest?

Thanks

[bol4770]

Hey,

Out of interest, are you able to recreate this issue by attempting a manual / CD based installation on the same blade server? Secondly, can you also attempt the installation by using a different ESX distro image. This should at the very minimum rule out the following: Potential issue with the ESX source image; Hardware issues that in effect is not specific to the EDA deployment tool.

Thanks

[Funtoosh]

Can someone help me with my queries? I have posted screen shot in my previous post.

[twashburn]

If you're talking to me, I gave up and created an ISO that does all of the pre configuration and I run the post script externally.

FWIW the error occurs only when using the appliance.

Judging by the error the only thing I could think of is maybe there isn't enough space on the NIC prom for the image.

Tim Washburn

System Administrator

MCP,VCP,A+

DeLorme

2 DeLorme Drive

Yarmouth, ME 04096

[bol4770]

Hi there (Funtoosh),

Looking at the ks script, I noticed that you are missing an octect from the ESX Host server client IP setting. In other words, the ks script posted shows 'x.x.x' rather than 'x.x.x.x'. Can you conhave a look at this and let us know?

Nevertheless, the issue you are experiencing was encountered by ourselves a few months ago. After several days of relentless troubleshooting we were able to track it down to compatibility issues between the NIC and the network switch. First we applied the latest firmware on BOTH the NICs and the network switch(es). This worked intermittently. However, to maintain a consistent 100% success ratio, we also had to set the speed on the port (on our procurve switch) from auto to 100 half.

How did we isolate the issue? We tried the installation using a test server from a totally different vendor where the NICs are different and it worked first time. We then further isolated the issue by installing a NIC from a totally different vendor and again it worked. So we were able to determine that the issue is networking component related.

Thanks.

[Funtoosh]

Hi Bol4770,

Thanks for your advice. I have changed KS script. I might have posted old one but did made changes there after. But still it was failing while downlaoding image.

I have not tested changing it to 100MB but today I will testing it with changing our CISCO 3750 port to 100MB mode as suggested by you. I will keep you posted and thanks for your vlauable suggesation

Funtoosh

[Funtoosh]

Plesae find the ks script

rootpw --iscrypted $1$yMVQ/DP8$s8cgSsOzV3K2SMWsMTDB8.

bootloader --location=mbr --driveorder=cciss/c0d0

timezone US/Eastern

skipx

install

text

lang en_US

langsupport --default en_US

keyboard us

mouse none

reboot

firewall --disabled

url --url http://10.9.101.10/esx/

network --bootproto static --device eth8 --ip 10.3.130.14 --netmask 255.255.255.0 --gateway 10.3.130.1 --nameserver 10.1.140.10 --hostname bosesxqp5.axisspecialty.net --addvmportgroup=0

clearpart --all --drives=cciss/c0d0 --initlabel

part /boot --fstype ext3 --size 200 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0

part swap --size 544 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0

part / --fstype ext3 --size 5120 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0

part /var --fstype ext3 --size 4096 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0

part /tmp --fstype ext3 --size 2048 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0

part None --fstype vmkcore --size 100 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0

part None --fstype vmfs3 --size 1 --grow --ondisk=cciss/c0d0

vmaccepteula

vmlicense --mode=server --server=27000@axusvc02.axisspecialty.net --edition=esxFull

%packages

@base

%post

cat > /tmp/esxcfg.sh <<EOF1

#!/bin/bash

esxcfg-firewall --allowOutGoing

esxcfg-firewall --blockOutgoing

EOF1

1. Make esxcfg.sh eXcutable

chmod +x /tmp/esxcfg.sh

1. Backup original rc.local file

cp /etc/rc.d/rc.local /etc/rc.d/rc.local.bak

1. Make esxcfg.sh run from rc.local and make rc.local reset itself

cat >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local <<EOF2

cd /tmp

/tmp/esxcfg.sh

mv -f /etc/rc.d/rc.local.bak /etc/rc.d/rc.local

EOF2

**************************************************************************

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[brugh]

Funtoosh,

i see that your EDA IP address is in a different range than your ESX servers are. did you read http://virtualappliances.eu/eda.html#troubleshooting? it says that you need to have the EDA in the same IP subnet as your ESX service consoles. this is very important or you'll get errors and things won't work!

[brugh]

could you post a screenshot of what your esx server says in the alt-F3 and alt-F4 screens? what's usually the case is that it can't find the kickstart file. check the 'ks' link behind the servernames in the main EDA window. do they look right? could you post one?

[brugh]

there's no variables you can use directly. but you can easily create your own from the VMotion address or the COS address by cutting a piece of either of them. put something like:

• newIP=10.1.1.$(ip addr show dev vswif0|grep inet | awk '{print $2}' | cut -c 10-11)*

then you can use $newIP in your script to add iSCSI or whatever. this only works ofcourse if there's a direct relationship between both addresses but that only makes managment easier so it should

also, we try not to use iSCSI as a target for ESX. the overhead on storage like that is much bigger than when the targets are connected to the VMs directly. just a thought..

[brugh]

that doesn't look like a normal script or network problem but looks very much like a corrupt installation image. try re-downloading the iso and try again.

[brugh]

that bug has been resolved because a lot of people were affected by it. you can use # where zeros go or just apply the patch availabe on http://virtualappliances.eu/. that fixes this and some other issues..

[bol4770]

Hi Funtosh,

You may also want to change the IP address of the EDA server to one within the same range as the ESX host server. In other words from the current IP of 10.9.101.10 to a spare IP address in the range 10.3.130.x. I must admit that that is the one notable difference within my environment here: The EDA server is located on the same subnet as the ESX host as per the Deployment guide.

Let us know how you get on.

[bol4770]

Yes I already applied the patch before your response and can confirm that the issue has been resolved in the latest patch level. One more thing if you dont mind: For some of us that currently deploy secondary Service Console IP addresses in addition to the one deployed by default, would you consider adding this functionality on later version of the product. In other words each ESX server would have an additional (though unique) secondary console IP address as part of the deployment process.

Thanks

[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 EDA. Now I got real challenge how do I form a process so that my server build team should be capable of building ESX host.

• My EDA 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?

• Secondly I am not able to use host name as ABCESX001AV. It always remove 00 . Do I have to apply patch?

• 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 EDA.