Preparing to Provision an OS

Using Sun xVM Ops Center to provision operating systems requires some preparation, including:

• Importing, loading, or downloading an OS image to use to install the OS onto target systems. Importing OS Images and FLARs, Loading OS Images From CD or DVD, and Downloading OS Images describe three ways to bring OS images into Sun xVM Ops Center.
• Creating an OS profile appropriate for the target systems. Creating OS Profiles for Solaris Systems, Importing JET Templates, and Editing an OS Profile describe three ways to create OS profiles that are appropriate for your target systems.
• Discovering the service processor of the target systems. Discovering Target Systems describes a simple custom discovery procedure. Discover Gear contains links to additional procedures for discovering gear. See Custom Discovery for more information about custom gear discovery.
• Disabling monitoring for servers that you plan to provision. This step is useful to avoid generating events or errors related to a monitored system going offline during the OS provisioning process.
• Configuring DHCP services on Sun xVM Ops Center Proxy Controllers.

Discovering Target Systems

If the system you intend to use as a target for OS provisioning has not been discovered by Sun xVM Ops Center, use Custom Discovery to discover the system. For example:

1. Select Gear from the Navigation pane, then All Gear in the list of gear.
   
2. Select Custom Discovery from the Actions pane.
   The Custom Gear Discovery panel is displayed.
   
3. In the Custom Gear Discovery panel, click the New Criteria button.
   The Discovery Criteria panel is displayed. Fields in the Discovery Criteria panel allow you to specify how you want Sun xVM Ops Center to discover gear.
   
4. Check Save Criteria for Future Use and Save Password.
   
5. Enter a name for this set of discovery criteria in the Discovery Criteria Name field.
   
6. Enter the IP address of a system or a system's service processor in the Comma-separated IP Address(es) Range or Subnet field.
   
7. In the Search For Type list, select the type of search (protocol) that matches the features of the target systems that you want to discover.
   Protocol-related fields are displayed.
   
8. Enter the appropriate authentication information for the system that you want to discover.
   
9. Click Save.
   The named set of discovery criteria is displayed in the Custom Gear Criteria Table.
   
10. Select the discovery criteria that you just created, and click Discover Gear.
    A status message indicates that the discovery job has started.
    
11. Click OK to dismiss the status message.

You can use the Jobs listings in the Navigation pane to view the list of jobs and the status of your discovery job.

Disabling System Monitoring

It is recommended that you disable monitoring of systems on which you wish to provision an OS, and that Sun xVM Ops Center is currently monitoring.

1. Select Gear from the Navigation panel. The All Managed Gear list in the Managed Gear tab shows the list of currently managed gear.
   
2. From the All Managed Gear list, select the managed OS instance that is currently installed on the system that you intend to use as a target for OS provisioning. Selecting the managed OS allows you to uninstall the Sun xVM Ops Center agent that is currently installed.
   
3. Click the Unmanage/Delete Gear icon. The Introduction panel of the Unmanage and Delete Gear wizard is displayed.
   
4. Click Next. The Enter Server Credential panel is displayed.
   
5. In the Enter Server Credential panel, enter the SSH user name and associated password for the root or privileged user on the target system. Select one of the two options that control how the credentials that you enter apply to the listed gear:
   • Use the Same SSH Username and Password for All Gear Listed Below
   • Use Different SSH Username and Password for All Gear Listed Below
     
6. Click Next. The Unmanage/Delete panel is displayed.
   
7. In the Unmanage/Delete panel, verify that the correct system to unmanage is listed.
   
8. Click Next, the Summary panel is displayed.
   
9. Click Unmanage/Delete Gear to submit the job to unmanage and delete the selected gear.

Configuring DHCP Services

OS provisioning in Sun xVM Ops Center requires DHCP services to be enabled on the Proxy Controllers that will perform OS provisioning operations. In a typical Sun xVM Ops Center installation, you configure one Proxy Controller in every network where you want to provision operating systems. The Proxy Controller must be in the same subnet as the target hosts for OS provisioning to work.

The Proxy Controller that is attached to a particular network provides the DHCP services and OS provisioning services that the target systems on that network require. DHCP services provided by Proxy Controllers support the netboot or PXE boot operations of target systems.

OS provisioning in Sun xVM Ops Center requires only the basic DHCP services that the DHCP Config action configures on Proxy Controllers. You may configure additional DHCP services using the Subnets action. As an alternative to the DHCP Config and Subnets actions, you may configure an external DHCP server using the External DHCP Servers action. These DHCP configuration actions are described here:

• DHCP Configuration
• Subnets
• External DHCP Servers

You can configure the basic DHCP services that OS provisioning require by using either the Sun xVM Ops Center BUI, or by using the proxyadm command. To configure DHCP services on a Proxy Controller, you must specify the network interface that you want to use for OS provisioning traffic.

Identifying Available Ethernet Interfaces

To show the list of network interfaces on a Proxy Controller, you can use the ifconfig command. For example:

# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=2001000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 8232 index 1
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 
hme0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
        inet 172.20.25.230 netmask fffffc00 broadcast 172.20.27.255
        ether 8:0:20:e9:35:b9 
qfe0: flags=1000802<BROADCAST,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 3
        inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0 
        ether 8:0:20:e9:35:b9 
qfe1: flags=1000802<BROADCAST,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 4
        inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0 
        ether 8:0:20:e9:35:b9 
qfe2: flags=1000802<BROADCAST,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 5
        inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0 
        ether 8:0:20:e9:35:b9 
qfe3: flags=1000802<BROADCAST,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 6
        inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0 
        ether 8:0:20:e9:35:b9 
# 

This example lists five external ethernet interfaces, hme0, qfe0, qfe1, qfe2, and qfe3. The loopback interface lo0 is not used for DHCP or OS provisioning services. Choose the ethernet interface that is attached to the network that you want to use for OS provisioning operations.

To Configure DHCP Services by Using the BUI

To use the Sun xVM Ops Center BUI to configure DHCP services on a Proxy Controller, perform the steps described in the DHCP Configuration procedure.

This is the preferred method of configuring DHCP services.

To Configure DHCP Services by Using the proxyadm Command

You can use the proxyadm command to manually configure DHCP services on a Sun xVM Ops Center Proxy Controller. The proxyadm command resides in the /opt/SUNWxvmoc/bin directory on Solaris systems, and in the /opt/sun/xvmoc/bin directory on RHEL 5.0 systems. The example below from a Solaris system uses the following options:

Stop the Proxy Controller services before you configure DHCP services, then start the Proxy Controller services again. For example:

# /opt/SUNWxvmoc/bin/proxyadm stop -w
# /opt/SUNWxvmoc/bin/proxyadm configure -D isc -I hme0
# /opt/SUNWxvmoc/bin/proxyadm start -w

Troubleshooting Known Solaris DHCP Issues

Refer to Troubleshooting for information about troubleshooting a known issue with the Solaris default DHCP server and Sun xVM Ops Center.