6.0.1

4 Review the summary information for the new profile and click Finish.

A clone of the profile appears in the Host Profiles list.

Copy Settings from Host

If the configuration of the reference host changes, you can update the Host Profile so that it matches the

reference host's new configuration.

After you create a Host Profile, you can make incremental updates to the profile. When making changes to a

Host Profile, consider the benefits and limitations of the two methods:

Make the configuration changes to a host in the vSphere Web Client, and copy that host's settings to the

profile. The settings within the existing profile are updated to match those of the host. This method

allows you to validate the configuration on a single host before rolling it to the other hosts that are

attached to the profile.

Update the profile directly by editing the Host Profile. This provides the ability to do more

comprehensive and immediate remediation of those changes.

Procedure

1 Navigate to the Host Profile.

2 Click Copy Settings from Host.

3 Select the host from which you want to copy the configuration settings.

4 Click OK.

Host Profiles and vSphere Auto Deploy

Host Profiles works with vSphere Auto Deploy to provision physical ESXi hosts have a complete and

expected configuration state for virtual switches, driver settings, boot parameters, and so on.

Because hosts that are provisioned with Auto Deploy are considered to be stateless, configuration state

information is not stored on the host. Instead, create a reference host and configure it completely with the

settings you want. Then, create a Host Profile from this reference host. Next, associate the Host Profile with

a new deploy rule using the Auto Deploy rules engine through the PowerCLI. Now, as new hosts are

provisioned through Auto Deploy, they will automatically have the Host Profile applied

Remediation for these hosts is the same as statefully deployed hosts. The user is prompted to customize the

hosts and enter answers for policies that are specified during Host Profile creation when the Host Profile is

applied.

NOTE If you deploy ESXi through Auto Deploy, configure syslog to store logs on a remote server. See the

instructions to set up Syslog from the Host Profiles interface in the vSphere Installation and Setup

documentation.

For more information, see about setting up an Auto Deploy reference host in the vSphere Auto Deploy

documentation.

Import a Host Profile

You can import a profile from a file in the VMware profile format (.vpf).

When a host profile is exported, administrator and user profile passwords are not exported. This is a

security measure and stops passwords from being exported in plain text when the profile is exported. You

will be prompted to re-enter the values for the password after the profile is imported and the password is

applied to a host.

Chapter 1 Using Host Profiles

VMware, Inc. 17