Users Guide

Table 34. Preparing for deployment
Steps Description
Create a deployment
template
A deployment template contains a system profile, hardware profile, hypervisor profile, a
combination of system profile and hypervisor profile, or a combination of the hardware profile
and hypervisor profile. You can save and reuse these profiles as required for all available data
center servers.
After the deployment template is created, use the deployment wizard to gather the information necessary to create a scheduled
job that provisions server hardware and deploys new hosts in vCenter. For information about running the deployment wizard,
see Running Deployment Wizard on page 105. Lastly, view the job status through job queue and change the pending deployment
jobs.
Configuring hardware profile
To configure server hardware settings, create a hardware profile. A hardware profile is a configuration template that you can
apply to newly discovered infrastructure components and it requires the following information:
Table 35. Requirements for creating hardware profile
Requirements Description
Boot order The boot order is the boot device sequence and hard drive sequence that you can edit only if the
boot mode is set to BIOS.
BIOS settings The BIOS settings include memory, processor, SATA, integrated devices, serial communications,
embedded server management, power management, system security, and miscellaneous settings.
NOTE: The OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter enables certain BIOS settings under
the Processor group in the BIOS on all deployed servers, regardless of the settings on the
reference server. Before using a reference server to create a hardware profile, the reference
server must have the CSIOR setting enabled and rebooted to provide accurate inventory and
configuration information.
iDRAC settings The iDRAC settings include network, user list, and user configuration.
RAID configuration The RAID configuration displays the current RAID topology on the reference server at the time the
hardware profile was extracted.
NOTE: There are 2 RAID configuration options configured in the hardware profile:
1. Apply RAID1 + create a dedicated hot spare, as applicable—use this option if you want to
apply default RAID configuration settings to the target server.
2. Clone RAID configuration from the reference server—use this option if you want to clone the
reference server setting. See Customizing reference server for creating hardware profile.
The tasks for creating hardware profiles include:
● Enabling CSIOR on a reference server
● Customizing reference server to create a hardware profile
● Cloning a hardware profile
Enabling CSIOR on reference server
Before creating a hardware profile by using a reference server, enable the Collect System Inventory On Reboot (CSIOR) setting,
and reboot the server to provide accurate inventory and configuration information.
There are two methods for enabling CSIOR:
Table 36. Methods for enabling CSIOR
Method Description
Locally Uses an individual host by using the Dell Lifecycle Controller United Server
Configurator (USC) user interface.
Deploying hypervisor 99