White Papers

10 Deployment and Managing Configurations with Dell OpenManage Essentials | Revision A00
4 How to automate hardware configuration and operating
system deployment (Auto Deploy) of recently ordered
devices
Example use case - Your Company orders several new devices. The devices are shipped and may come in
at different times. When a device is connected to the network, you want a template you created deployed
to the device and for the devices to boot to an ISO on your network.
Note: Auto deploy is only for devices that have not been discovered by OME. To deploy to devices
discovered by OME, see the Create Templates
Understanding and creating templates is necessary for using the deployment and configuration features.
This section explains what a template is and how to create a template from a reference device or from a
file.
4.1 Template definition
A template is a collection of attributes that describe the settings of a device. The settings describe the
behavior of a device’s hardware. A device may have several hundred attributes depending on the device’s
hardware. An attribute is a name value pair that describes a particular setting of a device. OME installs with
sample server and chassis templates for specific use cases. A user can deploy, edit, clone, delete, or
rename a template. Sample templates must be cloned to deploy or use for compliance.
4.2 Requirements for creating a template
To create a template from a reference device, the device must meet the same requirements in the Target
device requirements section. To create a template, a server does not need a license.
4.3 How to create a template from a reference device
This section describes how to create a template from a discovered device. A ‘reference device’ is a device
that has been discovered in OME, configured a desired way and the functionality of the device is intended
to be replicated on other devices. The reference template is crucial to the success of configuring your
other devices. Make sure that the reference device is correctly configured before you create a template
from it.
4.3.1 Create a template from a reference server
1. Navigate to the ‘Deployment’ tab.
2. Click ‘Create Template’ (located in the left hand navigation under ‘Common Tasks’).
3. Enter a unique name for the template.
4. Select ‘Create from Device’.
5. Select the target server from the device tree