Objective 9.2 – Install ESXi Hosts Using Auto Deploy

Knowledge - Identify Auto Deploy Requirements
Auto Deploy Environment Requirements

• Do not use VLAN tagged networks at the boot NIC
• 2GB of disk space (minimum) for Auto Deploy repository
• DHCP server in the environment
• TFTP server in the environment
• Set up a remote Syslog server (optional). Leverage vSphere Syslog Collector
• Set up ESXi Dump Collector and configure hosts to leverage

Software Requirements

• Microsoft .NET 2.0
• Microsoft Powershell 2.0
• VMware vSphere PowerCLI
• Set up a remote Syslog server (optional but recommended). Leverage vSphere Syslog Collector
• Set up ESXi Dump Collector (optional but recommended) and configure hosts to leverage

Skills and Abilities - Install The Auto Deploy Server

 

Skills and Abilities - Utilize Auto Deploy Cmdlets to deploy ESXi hosts
Form your image using image builder,  then create a new deploy rule using the image when you do this the contents of the image are compared to the contents of the Autodepoly cache and uploads any required packages which are not already in the Autodepoly cache.

Skills and Abilities - Configure Bulk Licensing

# Load the vSphere License snapin
Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.License

# Connect to the vCenter Server system you want to use and bind the associated license manager to a variable.
Connect-VIServer 192.168.1.89

# Retrieve the datacenter in which the hosts for which you want to use the bulk licensing feature are located.
$HostContainer = Get-Datacenter -Name VCAP

# Bind the associated license manager to a variable
$LicenseDataManager = Get-LicenseDataManager

# Create a new LicenseData object and a LicenseKeyEntry object with associated type ID and license key.
$LicenseData = New-Object VMware.VimAutomation.License.Types.LicenseData
$LicenseKeyEntry = New-Object Vmware.VimAutomation.License.Types.LicenseKeyEntry
$LicenseKeyEntry.TypeId = "vmware-vsphere”
$LicenseKeyEntry.LicenseKey = "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"

# Associate the LicenseKeys attribute of the LicenseData object you created in step 3 with the LicenseKeyEntry object.
$LicenseData.LicenseKeys += $LicenseKeyEntry

# Update the license data for the data center with the LicenseData object and verify that the license is associated with the host container.
$LicenseDataManager.UpdateAssociatedLicenseData($hostContainer.Uid, $licenseData)
$LicenseDataManager.QueryAssociatedLicenseData($hostContainer.Uid)

# Provision one or more hosts with Auto Deploy and assign them to the data center or to the cluster that you assigned the license data to.

Skills and Abilities - Provision/Re-provision ESXi Hosts Using Auto Deploy

1. Install AutoDeploy.
2. Configure the TFTP server.
3. In a vSphere Client connected to the vCenter Server system that Auto Deploy is registered with, click Home in the navigation bar and select Auto Deploy in the Administration tab to display the Auto Deploy page.
4. Click Download TFTP ZIP to download the TFTP configuration file and unzip the file to the directory in which your TFTP server stores files.
5. Set up your DHCP server to point to the TFTP server on which the TFTP ZIP file is located.
6. Specify the TFTP Server's IP address in DHCP option 66 (frequently called next-server).
7. Specify the boot file name, which is undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired in the DHCP option 67 (frequently called boot-filename).
8. Set each host you want to provision with Auto Deploy to network boot or PXE boot, following the manufacturer's instructions.
9. Create custom image if required.
10. Write a rule that assigns an image profile to hosts.

Skills and Abilities - Configure An Auto Deploy Reference Host
In an environment where no state is stored on the host, a reference host helps you set up multiple hosts with the same configuration. You configure the reference host with the logging, coredump, and other settings that you want, save the host profile, and write a rule that applies the host profile to other hosts as needed. You can configure the storage, networking, and security settings on the reference host and set up services such as syslog and NTP.

This is done by associating a Host Profile to a deploy rule
     -Item my_host_profile