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

[davidbarclay]

I'm getting APIC issues when try to boot the Workstation version. Anyone else getting this? ANy ideas?

Screenshot:

http://i13.tinypic.com/52371w1.jpg

Dave

[_the_dude_]

Dave,

I've replied to your question on the forum on ultimatedeployment.org. I think it's either a problem with RC2 or the VMWare tools that are inside the appliance.

[_the_dude_]

Dinny,

1. The gateway option: I guess you found a bug... Thanks for the workaround!

2. The local option in the kickstart builder is for a local disk on your newly to install system (and not a local disk on the UDA). If you have preloaded your installation files/iso to a partition on the system that you are about to deploy, you can use this local option.

This preloading to the newly to deploy system will not be nescessary for the UDA, since the iso you've loaded onto you second local UDA disk will be mounted and published over http, so the newly to deploy system can get it's install files over the network. Just stick with the http option...

3. The hostname can be changed without any problems. All configurations/templates etc. are configured with the ip-address of the uda (so it doesn't care about your DNS config). If you change the IP address throught the web-interface then the templates and command lines will be changed automatically. If you do it manually you'll have to do it yourself. I would recommend you change the ip-address before creating tempates though.

4. I haven't tested it, but as far as I know you can use one of the Fedora Core configurations. I would use the fedora core version on which your the RHEL version is based, but technically the fedora core versions are the same for the UDA. You'll need a RHEL DVD though, because you can only supply 1 iso file. You may be able to get it to work with CD's if you do some manual tweaking.

Good luck!

[Michelle_Laveri]

OK, phew a number of questions. Let me see what I can do...

1) I couldn't get the gateway option to work in

system, network settings.

If I enter a gateway address, I see it running a

script but it doesn't seem to work - or even show it

afterwards.

I have got round it manually by adding it to

/etc/sysconfig/network.

I will check this out on my UDA today. I've had a new server delivered this morning and must rack that up and get it sorted first...

2) I've added a second disk to my UDA VM to hold the

ESX ISO.

I've configured the UDA OS option to use this ISO

If I then use the ESX template wizard and use the

http default - it works perfectly.

I thought maybe I'd try the "local" option just to

remove the additional dependencies on http.

The template wizard then prompts for a partition and

directory.

I wasn't certain what to enter but tried:

/dev/sdb1

/var/public/smbmount/DISK2

OK a misunderstanding the local disk option allows you to STORE the ISO on a VMDK inside the VM. To be delivered to your ESX host or any other operating system then a transport has to be used such as http (UDA's default) or NAS, FTP. The pxe configurator does have a CD/Hard disk option. I've never used them. This method is used to create a kickstart.cfg held on a removable hard-drive or burnt to a CD. The goal of UDA is to do remote over the network installations. I've never used them and didn't test them.

3) I know the VM is called uda14-esx, and the Fedora

hostname in UDA.

I wondered it it would cause any problem to the UDA

app if I change the name of the VM and more

importantly the hostname of the Fedora OS to tie in

with our company naming conventions? I presume there

are no dependencies on the hostname in the UDA app?

Nope just use vi or nano to rename the UDA. I've renamed mine to be called uda.vi3book.com

4) I was hoping to include an automatic PXE boot

system for some of our RHEL VMs. I'm hoping/guessing

that it shouldn't be too hard to amend one of the

other pre-configured Linux OS's installs (that I am

unlikely to use) to be a RHEL install.

Is that correct or am I being too naive/optimistic?

Dinny

mmm, not especially... I orginally used the Fedora 5 core version in UDA 1.4 to deploy ESX 3. Of course, I had to completely replace the default kickstart template because ESX requires totally different instructions. I would look for a sample kickstart on the net somewhere file that you can modify for your purposes

Regards

Mike

[Michelle_Laveri]

I'm getting APIC issues when try to boot the

Workstation version. Anyone else getting this? ANy

ideas?

Screenshot:

http://i13.tinypic.com/52371w1.jpg

Dave

Er, not sure... Both the workstation and esx version use a SCSI disk with a lslogic controller which is the only setting that might halt the boot process. I've run both without this error appearing...

Did you do a Md5sum on the download?

Regards

Mike

[kerravon99]

Hi All,

I have just download 1.4 of this excellent app, I have copied a winxpsp2.iso to disk 2 after initializing it and mount OK.

when running a pxe boot VM all seems to go well till it finishes with the following lines

could not find kernel image: linux

boot: (I typed in winxp at this point)

could not find kernel image: winxp

boot:

Could anyone help, have I missed some step out, I have not changed any of the setting from the downloaded appliance yet, wanted to get up and running before I did that.

Any help gratefully recieved, Thanks in advance.

kerravon99

please feel free to email me, machine is on 24/7

[_the_dude_]

You say you type winxp. Since this is not a legal template name, I suppose you have not yet created a template for your install.

After importing the OS, you must create a template. This template holds the installation settings (the answers you would give during a manual install, but then as a textfile).

Just go to the Templates section in the webinterface, hit 'Create new template' and enter a (5-character) id/name and description and choose windows XP. The appliance will then create a template for windows XP installation.

You can edit the template (the boot command line and the unattended install answer file) by going to the templates section again and hitting 'edit' .

When booting the other machine to PXE, you will get a list of your configured templates. By typing the id/name at the bootprompt you select the template you've just created.

By working with templates you can have more than 1 preconfigured unattended install for the same operating system.

Let me know if you encounter more problems!

[kerravon99]

Hi, Thanks for the reply,

when I clicked on templates the winxp option was already there.

i clicked configure and pointed to disk 2 and selected winxpsp2.iso from list

(well actually only one there at this point) and it went off creating some files or something, I waited til it said done. Thats when I triedto boot a pxe vm off it.

looking around I did notice that message hdr was blank and there is no message.txt

reading throught this group I notice a few problems with win xp so i tried

win 2000 pro calling 12345 as you suggested in an earlier posting

created a templare file, havent edited it yet, didnt realise you had to to be honest. BTW the winxp.tpl has been created somewher along the line as I have been inside it and changed the XXXX-XXX-XXX-XXXX- for a valid licence number.

But I get same message which ever I try to boot.

Sorry if I;m beig a pain in the preverbial, 'm just fascinated with this app.

I am using vmworkstation 5, and I have a pc with 2 NIC's one with a 192.168.X.X addr and the other with a 10.0.0.50 addr

if this is of any help to you.

thanks again

regards

kerravon99

[_the_dude_]

There are two separate pages in the web interface:

\* The OS section (which DOES have a predefined winxp entry)

\* The Templates section (which will never have a winxp entry, since that is a blocked name)

You are right when you say that there is a winxp.tpl. This is the file that will be used as a default configuration when you create a new template (actually it is the template for a new template) I agree this is kind of confusing... Editing this file will NOT help during boot of your new client.

From you comments I think you are skipping the create new template step. Go to the templates section in the web-interface and click ' Create New Template'. Choose winxp (problems have been fixed in a previous version) and enter an id/name. The template answer file will the be created for you, there is no need to create it yourself.

After you have created a template you should be able to find it in the templates list. That templates list will be right under the words 'Create new template'. in the Templates section of the web-interface. You can find the template's answerfile in /var/public/tftproot/.sif after this step has completed, but you can also edit it from the web-interface.

Good luck!

[kerravon99]

Thanks I'll give that a go, idid try to put winxp in create templates earlier and it told me I coulnt use that at i is a reserverd name.

I suppose this is where the 12345 id come in to play.

I will let you know how I get on

thanks

kerravon99

[kerravon99]

Hi again,

That brilliant that is working thanks so much.

couple more questions if I may, If I want to add an operating system

like windows 2000, do I need to edit the OS.conf maunually and copy the unattentd.txt to the templates directory renaming it to win2k.tpl

Thanks again for your time and patience.

regards

kerravonn99

[_the_dude_]

Good to hear it's working now!

You will not need to do the file-copies or edits manually. Just do the following in the web-interface:

\* Click the 'Configure' next to wi2ks in the 'Operating System' page

- choose the windows 2000 iso file and click OK

\* Click 'Create new template' on the Templates page

- Choose a name/id

- pick the Wndows 2000 option in the pull-down list

- Click OK

\* Go to the Templates page again and choose 'Edit Template' next to the template you have just created.

- Here you can edit the unattended.txt settings for this template

- Click OK to Save

By the way: I haven't tested it but you should be able to use any Windows 2000 (Server, Professional, Workstation or whatever) with the wi2ks option. Adding an extra windows 2000 option to the os.conf will not work, since the web-interface script will not recognize new option..

You will not need to edit the .tpl files!

[kerravon99]

Hi,

Thats great , thanks so much for your help.

Thanks for creating such an awsome app to, this is going to be so much fun to play with.

All the best

kerravon99

[Michelle_Laveri]

Hi guys,

I've been following this thread a little. Would you say this is a "bug", "user misconfiguration" or "bad default"...

I want to start collecting known issues so Carl and I can list them as known issues - on ultimatedeployment.org and rtfm-ed.co.uk.

They will also form the basis of some kind of patching process...

Personally, I have an isse with upgrade option for esx3, and ip error (non-serious) in one of my sample scripts...

Regards

Mike

[kerravon99]

Hi. mike,

No I wouldnt say it was a bug, more a lack of understanding (mine)

Ive been playing with this for 4 days and loads od reinstalls, different machines all the same problem. Followed the above instructions from the_dude and it was up and running in minutes.

I think what is needed is a getting started or using manual, with typical

faults that can occur specialy for the novice like myself.

I am actually thinking of compiling such a manual based on the wealth of knowledge within this group and now my own personnel experiance.

regards

kerravon99

[Michelle_Laveri]

manual, with typical

faults that can occur specialy for the novice like

myself.

Yeah, I know what you mean - I wrote a (very) brief guide to getting up and running with UDA when ESX people use it to deploy an ESX host. But I don't have the time (or quiet frankly the inclination) to write a guide for every possible OS "supported" by UDA. I doubt if Carl has the time either!

If you do write such a getting started document - I'm sure Carl or I would host it for you... all credits going to the author...

Regards

Mike

[kerravon99]

Hi Mike,

Yeah that would be great, specialy if I can pick your brains now and again. I'm lucky where time is concerned I have a lot of free time to come up with something.

regards

kerravon99

[kerravon99]

Hi There again,

Just to let you know win 2000 works like a dream

I will test w2k3 standard and enterprise later tonight and will let you know of progress.

cheers

kerravon99

[kalex]

hello,

so i possibly have a very stupid question. i'm not too familiar with linux so excuse me. can somebody tell me how to disable UDA's DHCP service so that i can use my existing DHCP scope that we have here. i will modify our scope to point it to UDA's IP address for PXE stuff, but i want to disable UDA's built in DHCP scope so that our current DHCP server is the only one giving out ip addresses.

thanks

Alex

[_the_dude_]

Alex,

\* Go to the Services menu on the webinterface

\* Choose DHCP

\* Click on Configure...

\* Uncheck the 'Start DHCP on boot' option

\* Click Apply

\* Go to the Services menu again

\* Choose DHCP

\* CLick the STOP button (to stop it for now)

Either that or do it from the command line:

/sbin/chkconfig --level 3 dhcpd off

/etc/init.d/dhcpd stop

Make sure you configure the other DHCP service on your network implement the following from the uda DHCP:

if substring ( option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient"

{

filename "pxelinux.0" ;

next-server 10.0.0.104 ;

}

Good luck!