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

[lonelyjp]

Yes, but the default e100b325.inf file does not have this entry -> PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1229&SUBSYS_107010CF

I manually added it and everything worked!

Thanks.

[munyard]

This looks great, I wish to use it for a school to deploy about 80 computers.

Schools generaly have a range of application that need to be rolled out?

How do I also roll out applications?

[_the_dude_]

Munyard,

Applications are usually done by MSI packages or setups with answer files these days. http://www.appdeploy.com contains a lot of information for lots of different applications. This appliance is geared toward OS deployment. I'm not an application expert, but that's where I would start. You can create your own MSI installs with software like WISE studio http:/www.wise.com but beware: its not as easy as it sound from this post... Good luck!

[bilou_gateux]

Truely excellent appliance. Will sooner use it instead of using M$ RIS which requires AD.

1st install of winxp went smooth on oldest PIII 1GHz with Intel Pro/100 VM connection.

how to access UDA samba share to view dir tree and upload files from windows host 10.0.0.1

i have tried:

net use z:
10.0.0.104\reminst

admin

admin

with no success.

[_the_dude_]

bilou_gateux

try this:

net use *
10.0.0.104\reminst /user:guest

should work with no password or (when asked) try an empty password.

[bilou_gateux]

100 % working with the guest account and no password.

Thanks.

I will try later to add non supported Mass Storage Drivers for newest hp Proliant SAS controllers to my 2003 Server ISO image (editing txtsetup.sif and copying .sys binaries in i386 dir)and will check if copying MSD .sys binaries are required in WI2K3_SYS dir.

[_the_dude_]

It's impossible to edit files in the i386 directory, since they are physically on the (readonly) ISO you supplied. You can use a tool to edit the iso file or do it without editing it and 'redirect' the requests to another directory:

You'll have to copy the txtsetup.inf file to the WINXP_EXTRA directory, edit it there and supply a proper mapping in the tftp configuration, something like:

rgi /WI2K3/i386/txtsetup.in_ /WI2K3_EXTRA/NONEXISTENT

rgi /WI2K3/i386/txtsetup.inf /WI2K3_EXTRA/TXTSETUP.INF

And remember to restart the tftp server as well, either from the web-interface of with

/etc/init.d/tftpd restart

I have not tried using other MSD's yet with the UDA, but I think that you may need to put the .inf file in the WI2K3_INF directory as well, and remember to restart the binl service!

/etc/init.d/binl restart

Good luck and let me know what happened!

[bilou_gateux]

To allow PXE boot for hp ProLiant servers, i need to copy Broadcom NICs driver b57xp32.sys and b57win32.inf

Using the command:

net use *
/WI2K3_INF/b57win32.inf

I don't know if syntax above is correct and the exact path to use as destination

or an alternative.

[_the_dude_]

bilou_gateux,

try this:

pscp.exe -pw test c:\temp\b57xp32.sys root@10.0.0.104:/var/public/tftproot/WI2K3_SYS/b57xp32.sys

pscp.exe -pw test c:\temp\b57xp32.sys root@10.0.0.104:/var/public/tftproot/WI2K3_INF/b57win32.inf

Let me know if it works. You may want to check /var/log/messages to view what the ProLiant tries to download from the tftp server.

Also do net forget to restart the binl service:

\* /etc/init.d/binl stop

\* run either /var/public/cgi-bin/infparser.py or /var/public/bin/infparser.py depending on the UDA version you are using

\* Check /var/log/binlserver.txt to see if the number of processed drivers has increased since last startup.

\* /etc/init.d/binl start

good luck

[bilou_gateux]

Works as expected.

I have also added e1000325.sys and e1000325.inf:

pscp.exe -pw test c:\temp\e1000325.sys root@10.0.0.104:/var/public/tftproot/WI2K3_SYS/e1000325.sys

pscp.exe -pw test c:\temp\e1000325.inf root@10.0.0.104:/var/public/tftproot/WI2K3_INF/e1000325.inf

in order to install OS on a VM target configured with Intel 1000 NIC.

target.vmx

Ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

ethernet0.startConnected = "true"

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"

ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"

Next step is Mass Storage Controller Driver.

Thanks for your help.

[mYthOx]

hello,

i want to try out the Ultimate Deployment Appliance but i cant get it work on an ESX Server. I tried to convert the Appliance with VMWare Converter Beta, but after importing and starting the machine i get a kernel panic.

I think the reason for that is, that IDE-devices are used.

Does anyone have a idea how to get it work on an ESX Server?

Thanks in advance!

Greetz mYthOx

[_the_dude_]

mYthOx,

You're right about the ESX server not supporting ide disks. I have no experience with converting, but maybe it's a good idea to build a next version on SCSI virtual disks. Keep in mind though that you will need another client (windows) to host the ISO files through a windows file share.

I'll see if I can build a new version based on SCSI disks before the weekend and i'll send you a download link.

[mYthOx]

hi dude,

yes that is a great idea to make a release based on scsi-devices. Having another client to host the images is no problem i think.

thank you for your help and work! would be nice to test your appliance.

Regards

Message was edited by:

mYthOx

[_the_dude_]

mYthOx,

I've left you a private message with a download link in there. It's an exact copy of the 1.3 version deployed on a SCSI disk instead of an IDE disk, so it has the exact same features and bugs.

Please bear in mind that deploying new Windows systems onto an ESX server will be based on SCSI disks as well, so you will probably require specially added SCSI drivers manually to the windows distribution (read the forum for hints and tips on that). Linux/Solaris distributions will probably work out of the box.

Good luck, let me know if it worked.

[mYthOx]

After importing the new files with VMWare Converter it works fine. Only thing i had to do was, to convert BusLogic to LSILogic but the ESX Server prompt me to do that.

Thanks for your work.

[markbbailey]

Hi,

Firstly, I'd just like to say thanks very much for a great appliance. V1.3 has just got me out of a big hole trying to re-install WinXP on a laptop with no floppy and cd-rom. I had a few issues with the network card not being recognised but followed the instructions previously posted regarding Intel cards and RIS servers and everything worked fine. So, big well done to 'the dude'.

I might have mis-read this but I notice that you've said you need a machine separate to the VM Server on which to serve the ISO files. If it's any use to you at all, I was able to mount a SAMBA share running on the same machine that's also running the VM Server quite happily. This didn't give me any probs at all.

One question regarding the OS types - you've got quite a few listed and I was wondering if these are simply the ones you've tried and tested? Is there an easy way to add more or if I wanted to use, say, another flavour of Linux (e.g Damn Small Linux), could I try one of the existing OS types and see which is the closest match?

Any help on this last question would be much appreciated.

Cheers, Mark

[_the_dude_]

Mark,

You first question: You're right about the samba share, you can use a samba share from the machine where VMWare server is running. I was replying to a question from mYthOx, who's using an ESX server, which is a custom OS from VMWare (custom stripped down and modified Linux, that isn't able to support SMB shares as far as I know). In that case you need another machine running on top of that ESX server that hosts the ISO files...

Your second question: I think there's less than 1 percent chance that using another similar OS might work, exept maybe for upgraded OS distributions (importing fedora core 6 using the fc5 routines might just work). You're always welcome to try though and/or to add one yourself. You'll need some knowledge about the OS you want to add, I'm working on Damn Small Linux and other flavors of linux, BSD and thinstation in my development machine... It'll take some time though for me to finish that work. Of course if you happen to knowsome perl you may want to try it yourself. Here's a link with info for Damn Small Linux:

Damn small linux over PXE

http://news.mattiasschlenker.de/2006/02/22/pxe-booting-damnsmalllinux/

[markbbailey]

Hi 'the dude'.

Thanks for answer - it confirmed what I thought about using other OSs. My perl knowledge is pretty scant but I'll certainly have a go at something simple if I get get a chance too.

Cheers, Mark.

[_the_dude_]

Good luck, it'll be some time before I have time to do it. If you happen to get it implemented let me know. If you have questions you know where to find me

[thomsen]

Hey Dude... Realy nice appliance \!!! Working out of the box

But i Still have some quesstions ...

1. what is the section "templates" ind the web interface for ?? Is it "just" a placeholder for "todo-stuff" ??

2. i used an xp-cd without an unantendet setup, but when i bootet my laptop with pxe it started an unantendet setup ( formated hardisk without asking \*grmpf* ) , is there an other setup file ???

Greetz,

Thomas