Installation guide

Assign a Host Profile to Hosts
Auto Deploy can assign a host profile to one or more hosts. The host profile might include information about
storage configuration, network configuration, or other characteristics of the host. If you add a host to a cluster,
that cluster's host profile is used.
The following procedure explains how to write a rule that assigns a host profile to hosts. To assign the host
profiles to hosts already provisioned with Auto Deploy, you must also perform a test and repair cycle. See
“Test and Repair Rule Compliance,” on page 126.
In many cases, you assign a host to a cluster instead of specifying a host profile explicitly. The host uses the
host profile of the cluster.
Prerequisites
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Install vSphere PowerCLI and all prerequisite software.
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Export the host profile that you want to use.
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If you encounter problems running PowerCLI cmdlets, consider changing the execution policy. See the
information about using Auto Deploy Cmdlets in the vSphere Installation and Setup documentation.
Procedure
1 Run the Connect-VIServer PowerCLI cmdlet to connect to the vCenter Server system that Auto Deploy is
registered with.
Connect-VIServer 192.XXX.X.XX
The cmdlet might return a server certificate warning. In a production environment, make sure no server
certificate warnings result. In a development environment, you can ignore the warning.
2 In the vSphere Client, select View > Management > Host Profiles to display the Host Profiles panel and
export the host profile that you want to use from there.
3 Find the location of the host profile by running Get-VMhostProfile, passing in the server on which the
host profile is located.
4 At the PowerCLI prompt, define a rule in which hosts with certain attributes, for example a range of IP
addresses, are assigned to the host profile.
New-DeployRule -Name "testrule2" -Item my_host_profile -Pattern "vendor=Acme,Zven",
"ipv4=192.XXX.1.10-192.XXX.1.20"
The specified item is assigned to all hosts with the specified attributes. This example specifies a rule named
testrule2. The rule assigns the specified host profile my_host_profile to all hosts with an IP address inside
the specified range and with a manufacturer of Acme or Zven.
5 Add the rule to the rule set.
Add-DeployRule testrule2
By default, the working rule set becomes the active rule set, and any changes to the rule set become active
when you add a rule. If you use the NoActivate parameter, the working rule set does not become the active
rule set.
What to do next
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Upgrade existing hosts to use the new host profile by performing compliance test and repair operations
on those hosts. See “Test and Repair Rule Compliance,” on page 126.
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Turn on unprovisioned hosts to provision them with the host profile.
Chapter 6 Upgrading and Migrating Your Hosts
VMware, Inc. 125