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

[Goliath222]

Hi,

got it to work, thanks to all who helped and special thanks to Mike Laverik for pointing me to the right settings. Here is my config :

In the headline of the UDA I specified the ksdevice="MAC-adress" option in the second line (Kernel option command-line) before the ks="http://....."

In the kickstart file I had to set --device=vmnic4 ( in my example ) for the service console IP and hostname settings under #Network install type

network --bootproto=static --device=vmnic4 --ip=......

Regards

Oliver

[CToha]

Hi,

Wil there be support for deploying Vista in the future?

regards

[rolfbartels]

The "No COS added by user" error as some have already pointed out is that esx4 when it builds creates avirtual switch with a random mac and then tries to build off that.

This is fine if you have an open DHCP server and avaliable IP, However if like me you are using DHCP but only with reservations then the error appears as teh virtual switch does not get given an IP.

There is a fix however, if you edit the menu file and add to the bottom of each menu item for ESX4 "IPAPPEND 1" the server will boot and build of the first nic and this will not be an issue.

eg. (subtemplate)

LABEL DERBLESX31

MENU LABEL DERBLESX31

KERNEL vmlinuz.esx4.ESX_4_0_0_164009

APPEND ks=http://10.1.101.46/kickstart/ESX4/DERBLESX31.cfg initrd=initrd.esx4.ESX_4_0_0_164009 mem=512M

IPAPPEND 1

Here is the problem though every time you make a change and save the menu file the IPAPPEND 1 get's removed,

How can I included it the tempales automatially.

[minibillgates]

Hello

Superb Appliance Very Useful for lab environments

Warm Regards

Param Shah

[bulletprooffool]

This would be great if we could get it to lay down Firmware updates to ESX hosts (e.g. HP SmartStart etc)

[Michelle_Laveri]

Well I don't know about firmware updates.... but I install the HP Management Agents using the UDA...

The way I do it is open the firewall for http

esxcfg-firewall -o 80,tcp,out

then I download the .tar ball from the UDA with lwp-download...

Then I close the port... and extract the tarball - and the default .conf file to do silent install of the agent...

If you can do something similiar with firewall updates. Then it should work. Does HP have any mass-deployment guides for firmware updates?

Regards

Mike Laverick

RTFM Education

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk

Author of the SRM Book: http://www.lulu.com/content/4343147

[dfeierabend]

I am just now testing UDA in my department. I have been able to set it up and deploy a few machines but I am running into, i think driver issues. We use all dell laptops and on some the UDA works flawless. On other laptops I get an INF error right after inspecting hardware. Any ideas. Laptops are dell D610 and dell D600's that have the issue,

Thanks Dave

[unsichtbare]

Is it possible to do a full graphical install using UDA as the source (for demo purposes?)

-J

[unsichtbare]

I use Nlite to slipstream my Windows OS with the drivers I need (worry about the NIC's: intel, broadcom, leave the rest until later)

-J

[Reers]

Hi.

I have problem with adding to OS section - BartPE ISO image on UDA 2.0 beta.

I extend "locallv" to 30 Gb.

Upload images to this file system.

Then I click on OS - New

Flavor Name: BootCD

Operating System: BartPE

The ISO drop down is always have only 1 iso file but I need to choose another ISO image for win 2003 in second field, but I see only same ISO image as in the first field and can't change to ISO file with win2003.

Do you have any examples (or explanation) how to attach Acronis bootcd (or LiveCD cd's). What is "Manual Configuration" in OS section?

P.S. Why when adding Storages on SMB shares in field "Password" chars not hidden?

Thanks.

[Reers]

Anybody home ? :smileygrin: I wait till Wednesday but IMHO it's error in script (BartPE section) could you correct this?

[_the_dude_]

I tried with safari, ie and firefox on my development build and it seems to work properly for me.

Did you know that:

• Filename for the bartpe iso has to be all-lowercase

• The filename has to have the extension .iso

• You need to build the BARTPE iso file with Windows 2003 SP2 (at least)

I've uploaded a new beta build (10) that I have tested with. Please try it and let me know.

http://www.ultimatedeployment.org/uda20beta.html

[Reers]

I find that iso file must be in lower case in UDA forum... my bart_pe image build with win 2003 R2

but as you can see in screenshot in my previos post I can't choose in second field iso with win 2003R2

[Reers]

Thanks. In Build 10 problem with BartPE dissappear. Can you explain how to use "Custom configuration" in "OS" tab. For example with this . Are you planning add support other livecd like acronis boot cd and Hiren's boot cd?

[Reers]

Hi. I Testing Build 10. When I try to "Edit" previosly created template "Calt" and nothing change in it. I try to save template and got this error

cp: missing destination file operand after `/var/public/tmp/Cult.cfg.12768'
 Try `cp --help' for more information.

mkdir: missing operand
 Try `mkdir --help' for more information.

Error

Could not create directory

[_the_dude_]

Reers,

Can you reproduce this bug? I've been adding, removing and changing (and not changing) templates forever but I could not reproduce it.

If you can reproduce it, can you you please save the page-source just before you hit the Save button? And then send it to my Private Messages?

It is probably something with variables I forget to save.

[Reers]

cp: missing destination file operand after `/var/public/tmp/Cult.cfg.12768'

Try `cp --help' for more information.mkdir: missing operand

Try `mkdir --help' for more information.Could not create directory

I find that however template is saved

[_the_dude_]

I reproduced the error and found the problem, I'll have to fix it later,

but there's no real problem.

It just fails to create a temporary (backup-) file and it wants to

create a directory with no name in order to 'publish' the template.

Since manual templates do not need this stuff, there's no big deal, just

some stupid error messages I'll have to fix...

[RightSolution]

I am testing UDA 2.0 beta with the following setup:

Physical ESX4u1 host with the following VMs:

UDA 2.0 Appliance with ESX4u1 ISO mounted from network share

ESX blank VMs on the same physical ESX4u1 host

Everything configured to talk to UDA 2.0. The following is a test template:

============

accepteula

keyboard us

auth --enablemd5 --enableshadow

1. Canonical drive names:

clearpart --drives=mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0

1. Uncomment to use first detected disk:

#clearpart --firstdisk

1. Uncomment the esxlocation line and comment out the clearpart

2. and physical partitions to do a non-destructive reinstall.

#esxlocation --uuid=96870c4f-7ea1-4473-829e-30647f50f32d

install cdrom

rootpw --iscrypted $1$3KgiMLJG$GLSC0VlO7uXaNuFUArdl20

timezone --utc 'America/Toronto'

network --addvmportgroup=true --device=vmnic0 --bootproto=static --ip=192.168.1.120 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --gateway=192.168.1.1 --nameserver=192.168.1.103 --hostname=esx1.domain.local

part '/boot' --fstype=ext3 --size=1100 --ondisk=mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0

1. Uncomment to use first detected disk:

#part '/boot' --fstype=ext3 --size=1100 --onfirstdisk

part 'none' --fstype=vmkcore --size=110 --ondisk=mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0

1. Uncomment to use first detected disk:

#part 'none' --fstype=vmkcore --size=110 --onfirstdisk

part 'Storage1' --fstype=vmfs3 --size=8604 --grow --ondisk=mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0

1. Uncomment to use first detected disk:

#part 'Storage1' --fstype=vmfs3 --size=8604 --grow --onfirstdisk

virtualdisk 'esxconsole' --size=7604 --onvmfs='Storage1'

part 'swap' --fstype=swap --size=600 --onvirtualdisk='esxconsole'

part '/var/log' --fstype=ext3 --size=2000 --onvirtualdisk='esxconsole'

part '/' --fstype=ext3 --size=5000 --grow --onvirtualdisk='esxconsole'

%post --interpreter=bash

=============

^^ the above file is a copy from /root/ks.cfg after manual install on the same VM

Here is the issue:

PXE boots OK and proceeds until the point when ESX install asks to press Enter and reboot. After reboot server does not continue, black screen and CPU spikes 100% with no disk or network activity.

If installed manually using the same settings everything works great and I get my test ESX4u1 VM.

Did anyone tried this scenario before? What could be an issue here?

Regards,

Eugene

[Goliath222]

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