Deployment Framework Best Practices for Red Hat Enterprise Linux on HP ProLiant

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Figure 2: Deployment component scope
Hardware - The foundation is the hardware platform. It can be either a physical system, a
virtualization hypervisor, or even a virtual machine. This is the base element that any deployment
framework must interact with. In other words, the component that you unpack from the shipping
container that must either have remote, perhaps via network or baseboard management controller
( BMC), or human hands-on access.
In the context of this document, the assumption for the hardware component layer is a physical HP
ProLiant server. For the rack mount and deskside server configurations, like the DL and ML series, you
can use traditional keyboard, mouse, and monitor plus the built-in media drive to interact with the
server. In addition, you can decide to interact with the Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) form of BMC to
completely manage the system. For the BL series blade servers, users most often elect to work at the
iLO level or even at the enclosure Onboard Administrator (OA) which can connect to the various
blade servers and their respective iLO.
Since the iLO and OA options offer the best options for later automation, one should include these in
a deployment framework plan.
NOTE: As the iLO and OA interfaces provide physical presencelike access to the servers, you should
setup the network interfaces on a secure management network. That allows you to implement secure
access controls and restricted access.
Given this access, you must familiarize yourself with all the various ways to interact with these
management interfaces. From any web browser, you can login and control the server, including
mounting virtual media and controlling the server from a remote console. Additionally, command line
interface access is available via SSH and the Virtual Serial Port providing most of the same functions.