6.5.1

Host profiles Define machine-specific configuration such as networking or storage setup.
Use the host profile UI to create host profiles. You can create a host profile
for a reference host and apply that host profile to other hosts in your
environment for a consistent configuration. For more information, see the
vSphere Host Profiles documentation or the Setting Up a vSphere Auto
Deploy Reference Host section.
Host customization Stores information that the user provides when host profiles are applied to
the host. Host customization might contain an IP address or other
information that the user supplied for that host. For more information about
host customizations, see the vSphere Host Profiles documentation.
Host customization was called answer file in earlier releases of vSphere
Auto Deploy.
Rules and Rule Sets
You specify the behavior of the vSphere Auto Deploy server by using a set of rules. The vSphere Auto
Deploy rules engine checks the rule set for matching host patterns to decide which items (image profile,
host profile, vCenter Server location, or script object) to provision each host with.
The rules engine maps software and configuration settings to hosts based on the attributes of the host.
For example, you can deploy image profiles or host profiles to two clusters of hosts by writing two rules,
each matching on the network address of one cluster.
For hosts that have not yet been added to a vCenter Server system, the vSphere Auto Deploy server
checks with the rules engine before serving image profiles, host profiles, and inventory location
information to hosts. For hosts that are managed by a vCenter Server system, the image profile, host
profile, and inventory location that vCenter Server has stored in the host object is used. If you make
changes to rules, you can use the vSphere Web Client or vSphere Auto Deploy cmdlets in a PowerCLI
session to test and repair rule compliance. When you repair rule compliance for a host, that host's image
profile and host profile assignments are updated.
The rules engine includes rules and rule sets.
Rules Rules can assign image profiles and host profiles to a set of hosts, or
specify the location (folder or cluster) of a host on the target vCenter Server
system. A rule can identify target hosts by boot MAC address, SMBIOS
information, BIOS UUID, Vendor, Model, or fixed DHCP IP address. In most
cases, rules apply to multiple hosts. You create rules by using the
vSphere Web Client or vSphere Auto Deploy cmdlets in a PowerCLI
session. After you create a rule, you must add it to a rule set. Only two rule
sets, the active rule set and the working rule set, are supported. A rule can
belong to both sets, the default, or only to the working rule set. After you
add a rule to a rule set, you can no longer change the rule. Instead, you
copy the rule and replace items or patterns in the copy. If you are managing
vSphere Auto Deploy with the vSphere Web Client, you can edit a rule if it
is in inactive state.
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