User's Manual

Choosing an Embedded Linux-Based Deployment Method 51
Choosing an Embedded Linux-Based
Deployment Method
A well-thought-out deployment plan is critical to the success of your deployment effort and includes
the following considerations:
• Assessing your existing IT environment
• Selecting an operating system
• Selecting the optimum Dell
™ OpenManage™ systems management software configuration for
your system
• Choosing a deployment method
The Deployment Toolkit (DTK) is designed to be flexible enough to fit into almost any deployment
plan. For the purposes of this document, however, the focus is on two specific deployment methods:
CD-based deployment (local) and network-based deployment (remote).
Choosing a Deployment Method for Embedded Linux
The DTK components can be used in many different ways to assist IT staff in deploying
Dell systems in large numbers. Because all the tools and scripts are task oriented, many of them can
be used separately to perform a specific task on many systems or collectively to perform many tasks
on many systems at once.
The configuration complexity and pros and cons of each deployment method are provided in
Table 6-1. After you have decided which deployment method best fits your needs, you are ready to
begin preparing for the deployment.
Network-Based Deployment
NOTE: The DTK network-based deployment is not supported from mapped Novell
®
NetWare
®
systems.
The general network-based deployment process includes the following steps:
1
Modify the appropriate section in pxe config file.
2 Boot the target server from PXE.
The DTK start-up phase mounts the network share specified in the
pxe config file.
The DTK start-up phase runs the script (name specified in the
pxe config file) from the network.