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Ultimate Deployment Appliance

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

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PeterKuykendall
Contributor
Contributor

IT WORKED!

Thank you so much for the quick and informative reply!

It turned out the problem was the long flavor name.

Thanks again for building such an awesome tool!  I work with a charity that takes in donated PCs, fixes them if needed, wipes the drives, then provisions them with XP.  One day we may even provision with Linux, but that's an internal policy problem. Smiley Happy  So far we have given away over 3,000 PCs.

Our situation is that each PC is a Frankenstein collection of parts, so cloning is problematic.  An automated installer is probably our best bet.  It's OK if it takes a while, as long as we can push the button and let it grind without human intervention.

I have already set them up with a caching web server that has cut their provisioning time in half, due to tremendous speedup of Windows Updates (SP3 plus a million other updates) etc.  This UDA will probably raise the provision tech throughput 5x.  That will create a fresh new high-class problem for them, i.e. how to solve the bottlenecks both upstream and downstream of the provisioning crew.

Thanks again.

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PeterKuykendall
Contributor
Contributor

PS - Here's the ultimate use case that we would like to implement.  Is there any way that we can do this with UDA?  We are already close....

We would like to do a 2 step automated install script execution:

1 - Run DBAN, wiping the disk.

2 - Install XP.

This would really streamline our operation, allowing a single power up operation and walk away.  DBAN often takes several hours, so not having to intervene between DBAN and XP would be great.

I think that in order to pull this off the server would need to keep track of the state, i.e. DBAN complete.  Based on the state it would need to push an appropriate PXE client that would auto-execute the appropriate installer.

Can this be managed by cleverly altering the PXE config files based on MAC and state?  Or perhaps some other way?

I realize that this is beyond the scope of UDA as it currently is written, but hey, I can dream, can't I? Smiley Happy

Thanks

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PeterKuykendall
Contributor
Contributor

OK one more question.  Now that I have DBAN (manual config), Ubuntu, XP, and Win2K going, there are just a couple of other utilities that I want to add to round out the tool kit.  One is Spinrite, a DOS program for recovering data from bad sectors on hard drives.  I found instructions and followed them, pretty simple.

But I'm having another OS flavor issue.  I'm defining a new OS as "Spin", manual configuration.  I get the prompt for the kernel file to be uploaded from my PC with the browser (memdisk), and the initrd file (spinrite.x86).  That reports as having worked OK.  But when I look at the OS screen, it shows as not mounted, instead it says "N/A".  I try clicking on it and then clicking the "Mount" button but it doesn't mount.  When I go to create a template for it, again the flavor is not in the "Manual config" list, just DBAN, which was successfully created before.  Exploring /var/public/tftpboot/manual shows the "spin" directory.  Inside are the 2 files that I uploaded, except that they are zero bytes.

Any ideas?

Thanks - Pete

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_the_dude_
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Zero bytes may mean that the filesystem is out of space. Or maybe manual configuration has a bug where it messes up if there''s more then 1 defined. Try removing the Dban entry and try again. Let me know if it worked!

Op 1 jun. 2011 om 19:41 heeft PeterKuykendall <communities-emailer@vmware.com<mailto:communities-emailer@vmware.com>> het volgende geschreven:

VMware Communities<http://communities.vmware.com/index.jspa>

Ultimate Deployment Appliance

reply from PeterKuykendall<http://communities.vmware.com/people/PeterKuykendall> in Virtual Appliances - View the full discussion<http://communities.vmware.com/message/1764728#1764728

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adam_a-gent_co_
Contributor
Contributor

Hi The Dude,

Any news on the Win7/2008 features?

When I apply the patch it breaks editing of all other templates but 2008/Win7 based templates in the Web UI.

Most templates continue to PXE install correctly, but ESX/ESXi breaks (Loops back to PXE menu continuously)

Any ideas or news that I can try?

Thanks

Adam Gent

HP Storageworks, Bristol

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_the_dude_
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Adam,

You may want to try to change /var/public/www/js/configuretemplates.js

Change this line (around line 71)

document.getElementById('advanced2').style.background = "#05057A";

into these four lines:

if (document.getElementById('advanced2') != null)

{

document.getElementById('advanced2').style.background = "#05057A";

}

Let me know if that works!

Adam-CCPG replied

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"Ultimate Deployment Appliance"

To view the discussion, visit:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1764749#1764749

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adam_a-gent_co_
Contributor
Contributor

Hi The Dude,

That worked thanks Smiley Happy

However, I still have a problem with the actual PXE functionality with the beta .19 patch for 2008 - 2008 works fine, however it prevents you from being able to PXE boot ESXi which is a deal breaker for us!

Any ideas on what we can look at to fix that?

Or how I can simply boot a WinPE2 disk on the current stable build of the UDA? (I have a scripted UDA boot CD that does what I need, if I can boot it from UDA! - as in just serve the raw CD image with no modification - like a Manual Spin)

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dougdavis22
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi all,

I use the UDA as both the mechanism to deploy my ESX hosts and as an NFS mount for an ISO store.

For some reason, copying files from the NFS mount to an ESX host is ridiculously slow -  I'm talking in single figure MBs per minute here.  Any ideas why this would be or what I could do to improve performance?

Any help appreciated,

Doug.

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Shihan74
Contributor
Contributor

I've only recently stumbled onto UDA and reasonably impressed with it. Just a few small things tho:

  1. the fedora ks template works ok if you add %end to the end of the kickstart config (for fedora 14/15)
  2. manual config seems to break, like you can never update the template once its created, it just errors out.
  3. I added a OS thingo for system rescue cd (which i find invaluable), made a copy of the clonezilla one (global search and replace for clonezilla->systemrescue), added it to os.conf, touched "/var/public/www/templates/systemrescue.tpl", change the kernel/initrd to "/isolinux/rescuecd" and "/isolinux/initram.igz" respectively, and the url becomes "initrd=initrd.[OS].[FLAVOR] dodhcp netboot=http://[UDA_IPADDR]/[OS]/[FLAVOR]/sysrcd.dat" in the /var/public/cgi-bin/os/systemrescue.pl file... worked like a charm.

Thanks for the UDA!

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tdubb123
Expert
Expert

do I have to change the template file each time a different host pxe boots? what is the subtemplate for?

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Michelle_Laveri
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Nope.

See the "Advanced Template" as storing the generic details for your build - which contains [VARIABLES] such as your VMotion IP or Console IP...

The "subtemplate" is like a CSV file that holds all the variables. Therefore one template per type of buid and one subtemplate to hold the unique values of the build...

If you want to see sample see here:

Regards
Mike
Regards
Michelle Laverick
@m_laverick
http://www.michellelaverick.com
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tdubb123
Expert
Expert

hi

thanks. but whne i boot up 3 different hosts and set it to pxe boot, how would it know which one is host1, host2 or host3?

and which of the variables to use

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Michelle_Laveri
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

The first entry in the sub-template file unique IDs a server - and a menu is item is created for each server which you can select whether it is host1, 2, 3

If you like you can password protect the UDA so when someone uses the UDA you must know the password to proceed. You can also hard code each entry to a MAC address...

As for variables - you can have as many as you like. All you need to do is use square brackets [LIKETHIS] and anything in [SQUAREBRACKETS] becomes a variable that can be referrenced in the subtemplate...

Regards

Mike

Regards
Michelle Laverick
@m_laverick
http://www.michellelaverick.com
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tdubb123
Expert
Expert

can i avoid the whole submenu. I want to be able to boot pxeboot the server and automatically knows what ip address, hostname etc... it should use based on maybe its mac-address or a unique value of the esx host

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tdubb123
Expert
Expert

uda 2.0 and esxi5

what do I need to change to deplou esxi 5 on uda 2.0?

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Michelle_Laveri
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

You need to download and apply this update:

http://www.ultimatedeployment.org/uda-2.0.20.tgz

Which will take the UDA from build 17 to Build 20...


Regards

Mike

Regards
Michelle Laverick
@m_laverick
http://www.michellelaverick.com
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tdubb123
Expert
Expert

[root@uda rpm]# more /tmp/2.0_19.6401.log
20111130-103152 Preparing upgrade...
20111130-103152 OK: Created patchdir /var/public/patches/patch.2.0.19.6401
20111130-103152 Creating directory /var/public/patches/patch.2.0.19.6401/before
20111130-103152 OK: Created directory /var/public/patches/patch.2.0.19.6401/before
20111130-103152 Creating directory /var/public/patches/patch.2.0.19.6401/after
20111130-103152 OK: Created directory /var/public/patches/patch.2.0.19.6401/after
20111130-103152 Creating directory /var/public/patches/patch.2.0.19.6401/version
20111130-103152 OK: Created directory /var/public/patches/patch.2.0.19.6401/version
20111130-103152 Determining current version
20111130-103152 Found version file /var/public/conf/version/uda17.dat
20111130-103152 Copied version file /var/public/conf/version/uda17.dat to /var/public/patches/patch.2.0.
19.6401/version
20111130-103152 Found version file /var/public/conf/version/uda19.dat
20111130-103152 Copied version file /var/public/conf/version/uda19.dat to /var/public/patches/patch.2.0.
19.6401/version
20111130-103152 Pre Copy Actions
20111130-103152 Creating Directory Structure
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/log already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/tmp already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/bin already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/cgi-bin already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/cgi-bin/os already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/cgi-bin/services already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/smbmount already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/www already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/www/js already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/www/icon already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/www/kickstart already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/www/autoyast already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/www/jumpstart already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/conf already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/conf/os already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/conf/templates already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/conf/mounts already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/conf/version already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/conf/winpedrv already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/tftproot already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/tftproot/manual already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/tftproot/windows5 already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/tftproot/pxelinux.cfg already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/tftproot/pxelinux.cfg/templates already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/patches already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/files already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/files/dhpcd.d already exists
20111130-103152 Directory /var/public/www/templates already exists
20111130-103152 Backing up system files
20111130-103152 Stopping services if needed
20111130-103152 binlservice not running,
20111130-103152 Found tftpd service running, stopping for now
20111130-103152 Stopped tftpd service succesfully
20111130-103152 Copying Files
20111130-103152 Copying Icon files
20111130-103152 Copying Template files
20111130-103152 Copying JS files
20111130-103152 Post Copy Actions
20111130-103152 Overwrite conf files
20111130-103152 Found current file os.conf, backing it up
20111130-103152 Overwriting os.conf
20111130-103152 OK replaced os.conf
20111130-103152 Removing .overwrite file
20111130-103152 Found current file pxedefaultheader.new, backing it up
20111130-103152 Overwriting pxedefaultheader.new
20111130-103152 OK replaced pxedefaultheader.new
20111130-103152 Removing .overwrite file
20111130-103152 Found current file pxedefaultheader.conf, backing it up
20111130-103152 Overwriting pxedefaultheader.conf
20111130-103152 OK replaced pxedefaultheader.conf
20111130-103152 Removing .overwrite file
20111130-103152 Changing permissions on public directory
20111130-103152 Installing Packages
20111130-103152 Failed to install packages
20111130-103152 Starting service tftpd
20111130-103152 Started service tftpd succesfully
20111130-103152 Creating Versioninfo
20111130-103152 Wrote /var/public/conf/version/uda19.dat
20111130-103152 Wrapping up the results to /var/public/patches/patch.2.0.19.6401.tgz
20111130-103152 Copying logfile to /var/public/patches/patch.2.0.19.6401
20111130-103152 For logfile see /tmp/2.0_19.6401.log
restarted httpd but still shows
ModuleVersion
uda192.0_Build19
uda172.0_Build17
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Bekax
Contributor
Contributor

Hi all,

I am getting a little trouble setting up a Windows7 .iso...

Well, i mounted a Windows Share, which i have on my Windows Server 2003, sharing some linux and windows .iso's

I created a user specificaly for UDA and Granted Full access to share.

The Share is mounted correctly, however when i try to mound a Windows 7 image,

I pass through Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, and when mounting image, i get this error:

Could not mount iso file /var/public/smbmount/SO/Windows/seven/wind.iso on /var/public/tftproot/windows7/Windows7AIO

Also if i check the Virtual Machine i find this error:

UDF-fs: No VRS found

This happens only with Windows 7,

I can mount Ubuntu 11.04 and Windows XP SP3 without any problem.

UDA is patched to build20.

Regards.

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MobileWill
Contributor
Contributor

I recently rebuilt my esxi server with 5 and new hardware and wanted a PXE server. I found this and so far I am loving it. Any chance this project is still alive? The forum seems to be attacked by spam. I would help clean it up if needed. Anyways I got most things working with the older versions of the linux distros. Anyone have any luck with UBCD4Win or bartpe? I have tired everything and I get either a black screen when it tries t boot. I rebuilt the cd using server 2003 sp2 and when I add the ISO to UDA I get error about not finding i386 or I386.

Is there any plans to update this to work with the newer distros like fedora and such. I got the latest Ubuntu working.

Also is there a way to run like a Fedora live cd or openSUSE? That would be great.

Thanks.

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MobileWill
Contributor
Contributor

If anyone needs it I fixed a few bugs with Clonzilla and Gparted.

In the config scritp I add the word config in the commandline after boot=live for both

Then for GParted the keneral does't have the 1 at the end so in the same file remove the 1 from vmlinuz and initrd.

Works great. Now to get some live distros working.

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