6.7

3 Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot to add the software depot that contains the image profile to the
PowerCLI session.
Depot Type Cmdlet
Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot depot_url.
ZIP file a Download the ZIP file to a local file path.
b Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot C:\file_path\my_offline_depot.zip.
4 In the depot, find the image profile that you want to use by running the Get-EsxImageProfile
cmdlet.
By default, the ESXi depot includes one base image profile that includes VMware tools and has the
string standard in its name, and one base image profile that does not include VMware tools.
5 Define a rule in which hosts with certain attributes, for example a range of IP addresses, are assigned
to the image profile.
New-DeployRule -Name "testrule" -Item "My Profile25" -Pattern "vendor=Acme,Zven", "ipv4=192.XXX.
1.10-192.XXX.1.20"
Double quotes are required if a name contains spaces, optional otherwise. Specify -AllHosts
instead of a pattern to apply the item to all hosts.
The cmdlet creates a rule named testrule. The rule assigns the image profile named My Profile25
to all hosts with a vendor of Acme or Zven that also have an IP address in the specified range.
6 Add the rule to the rule set.
Add-DeployRule testrule
By default, the rule is added to both the working rule set and the active rule set. If you use the
NoActivate parameter, the working rule set does not become the active rule set.
When the host boots from iPXE, it reports attributes of the machine to the console. Use the same format
of the attributes when writing deploy rules.
******************************************************************
* Booting through VMware AutoDeploy...
*
* Machine attributes:
* . asset=No Asset Tag
* . domain=vmware.com
* . hostname=myhost.mycompany.com
* . ipv4=XX.XX.XXX.XXX
* . mac=XX:Xa:Xb:Xc:Xx:XX
* . model=MyVendorModel
* . oemstring=Product ID: XXXXXX-XXX
VMware ESXi Installation and Setup
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