HP Insight Control Server Provisioning 7.
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Contents 1 Introduction/overview.................................................................................4 2 Installing your Insight Control server provisioning appliance for the first time.......5 2.1 First time set up steps...........................................................................................................5 2.2 Get the software and deploy the virtual machine appliance......................................................5 2.2.1 Host requirements..............................
1 Introduction/overview What is Insight Control server provisioning? Insight Control server provisioning is a virtual appliance used to install and configure HP ProLiant servers. Insight Control server provisioning uses resources such as OS Build Plans and scripts to run deployment jobs.
2 Installing your Insight Control server provisioning appliance for the first time For system requirements, see the following sections: • “Host requirements” (page 5) • “Requirements for using the USB media or ZIP file download” (page 6) • “Requirements for setting up your Media Server” (page 12) • “Requirements for generating WinPE images” (page 17) Intended audience This documentation is written for experienced system administrators and assumes you are familiar with configuring and managing the VM
• At least 4 CPUs to accommodate the VM and at least 16 GB memory allocated for the VM NOTE: These are minimum CPU and memory requirements. If you will be deploying large numbers of servers at a time (more than 8 at a time), or will be managing large numbers of servers (over 1000) then the recommended optimal configuration is 8 CPUs and 30 GB of memory. • 200 GB of disk space allocated for the VM plus another 16 GB of disk space to serve as storage for the 16 GB of memory required.
2.2.3 Procedure for getting the software and installing Insight Control server provisioning The ZIP file download and the USB media typically include the following: • An Open Virtualization Format (OVF) template: IC-server-provisioning-ovf-.
IMPORTANT: HP does not recommend thin provisioning on a production appliance. Do not select Power on this virtual machine after creation. Select Finish to initiate deployment of the VM. 8. Select Edit virtual machine settings from the Getting Started vSphere page.
or by selecting from the vSphere Client Getting Started tab. Open the console to the IC server provisioning VM by selecting the Console tab from vSphere Client. On the console screen you will see the appliance screens for first time login. You are now ready to log into your appliance for the first time. When you first start up the appliance, you are given the opportunity to enable or disable HP Support access.
IMPORTANT: 3. Make sure you remember the new administrator password. The last step is configuring the appliance networking. Enter the appliance networking information as follows: General • Appliance host name: This is the host name of the appliance. From a supported browser, you can navigate to the appliance using this name or by using the appliance IP address.
• Gateway address: This field is not required but HP strongly suggests configuring it to ensure access to the appliance. This is the IP address for the network interface on your router. DNS • Preferred DNS server: The IP address of your preferred DNS server. Not required. • Alternate DNS server: The IP address of your alternate DNS server. Not required. Select OK or Logout • OK: Apply the information you’ve supplied. There will be a delay of up to 15 minutes while the appliance configures.
NOTE: To set up your Media Server, you must first download or have media for the actual OS installations. This includes the distribution files from the respective OS supplier, VMware ESXi from HP, and the latest SPP from HP. NOTE: It is possible to configure a Media Server on a Linux machine, but you cannot use the Insight Control server provisioning Media Server setup utility to do it.
NOTE: If you are installing IIS only for Insight Control server provisioning, HP recommends setting service for static content only, rather than dynamic. 2.6.4 Procedure for using the Insight Control server provisioning Media Server setup utility 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Figure 2 Insight Control server provisioning Media Server setup utility Components Selection NOTE: You may run the Insight Control server provisioning Media Server setup utility any number of times to selectively install media or to fix failed media installations. 10. From the Parameters screen provide: • Windows File Share Name Specify the name you wish to use for the Windows file share. This single file share name is used to access all the media on your Media Server, including any captured images.
Figure 3 Insight Control server provisioning Media Server setup utility Parameters When you are done, select Install. This will begin the Media Server installation set up process. 11. Each distribution will have its own Setup screen. Figure 4 Insight Control server provisioning Media Server setup utility Distribution Installation • Prerequisites Prerequisites are automatically verified. If the prerequisites are not met for the media, an error will be displayed and setup will not continue.
uncompressed format will be copied from. Archive formats and ISO images are not supported. (The Destination: information is the where the distribution will be copied to on the Media Server.) The OS distribution files are validated by using magic (signature) files for that distribution. NOTE: You can opt to not provide the OS distribution files or HP SPPs location.
booted. So even if you will only be using Gen8 server, if you want to do any image capture or deploy operations, you will still need to generate and upload WinPE. NOTE: Since the WinPE image contains the latest ProLiant drivers, you will need to regenerate WinPE each time you update your appliance. 2.7.1 Requirements for generating WinPE images • An HP ProLiant server with at least a 2.0 GHz processor and 2 GB of memory, or an equivalent virtual machine.
Figure 6 Insight Control server provisioning WinPE image generation utility Setup 18 7. Once the WinPE file has been generated, it is placed in %SystemDrive%\icsp-winpe.zip, where %SystemDrive% is generally C:. 8. Upload the icsp-winpe.zip file to the appliance from the Settings Edit DHCP page.
3 Recommended actions after initial setup Once you have your IC server provisioning VM set up and running, there are additional configuration tasks that might be required in your environment. These Recommended actions are listed in the Help area, which is initially pinned to the UI. As you visit the links under Recommended actions, a check mark will be displayed next to the items visited. You do not have to complete the task to have the check mark appear, simply visit the link.
right away. Also in the Quick Start are links to introductory material to help you get familiar with Insight Control server provisioning.
4 Updates and patches You can update the software components of your appliance for upgrades or patches by selecting Actions→Update Appliance in the Settings window. The online help steps you through the process. When you upload the update to the appliance, information about the update will be displayed including the version to be applied, how long the update is expected to take, and a link to bring up the release notes. Always read the release notes before applying an update.
5 Support and other resources 5.1 Contacting HP 5.1.1 Before you contact HP Be sure to have the following information available before you call contact HP: • Technical support registration number (if applicable) • Insight Control server provisioning version • Applicable error message • Third-party hardware or software • Operating system type and revision level • Support dump (optional): “Creating a support dump” (page 22) 5.1.2 Creating a support dump 5.1.2.
Information about the running appliance, including: • All processes • Memory • Disk space • Network statistics • Routing • Hardware information Log data, including: • All standard Linux operating system logs • All appliance logs • Logs from all jobs run in the past three days • Installation logs • The system audit log Other information: • A status report of all processes • Dates of any certificates used NOTE: The following types of items might be included in the support dump as a r
5.2 Related information 5.2.1 Documents The following documents are available at http://www.hp.com/go/insightcontrol/docs. • HP Insight Control Server Provisioning Online Help (in PDF form) • HP Insight Control Server Provisioning Administrator Guide • The white paper Data Migration from HP Insight Control server deployment to HP Insight Control server provisioning 5.2.2 Websites • Software download website: http://www.hp.
CAUTION A caution calls attention to important information that if not understood or followed will result in data loss, data corruption, or damage to hardware or software. IMPORTANT This alert provides essential information to explain a concept or to complete a task NOTE A note contains additional information to emphasize or supplement important points of the main text. 5.
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Glossary agent Software on managed servers used to make changes to the servers. Functions supported include software installation and removal, software and hardware configuration, and server status reporting. answer file See configuration file. appliance See virtual appliance. AutoYaST file The specific term to use when referring to a SLES configuration file. bare metal Describes a server that does not have a production operating system installed.
HPSUM HP Smart Update Manager, a common tool for firmware and driver updates. iLO See Integrated Lights-Out (iLO). iLO Virtual Media An HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) feature that allows you to attach a removable storage device or image file from a client machine to the server, and have that appear to the server as a local device. The server can boot from that virtual device or use it with a running operating system.
OS personalization The process of giving a running server the characteristics that make it unique, including IP configuration, host name, and domain. A server can be personalized during the initial OS deployment or after the OS is already installed. package A single compressed (zipped) file that can contain executables, configuration information, and script files. An example of a package is a .zip file of Windows drivers to be used during unattended installations. preboot environment See service OS.
See also maintenance mode, provisioned, and unreachable. service OS A special purpose operating system that runs entirely in system memory and is used to perform various maintenance functions on a server, including preparing a system for operating system installation. Insight Control server provisioning has service OS's based on Linux and Windows. See also LinuxPE and WinPE. SLES Stands for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. A Linux-based operating system developed by SUSE. software package See package.
Index D documentation providing feedback on, 26 F files serverdeployment.
