OS Provisioning Overview

Operating system (OS) provisioning enables you to use Sun xVM Ops Center to automatically install operating systems onto systems that are attached to your network. In most circumstances, OS provisioning requires no manual interaction with the system that you want to install. You initiate these OS installations from a centralized location, using the Sun xVM Ops Center BUI, rather than from the systems that you want to install.

Check System Requirements for the list of operating systems that you can provision with Sun xVM Ops Center.

OS provisioning involves three main tasks:

• Creating and Managing OS Images
• Creating and Managing OS Profiles
• Provisioning Operating Systems

Creating OS images and creating OS profiles are one-time tasks for each OS configuration that you want to provision. After an OS image and associated OS profile exist in Sun xVM Ops Center, you can provision the OS onto systems that are attached to your network.

Sun xVM Ops Center enables OS provisioning on single systems, groups of systems, or a combination of the two. OS provisioning for groups of systems requires using homogeneous groups, as described in Creating a Group and Adding Gear to a Group.

OS Provisioning Examples

The following examples combine separate OS provisioning procedures into procedures that are focused on a particular goal.

• Example - Provisioning a Solaris System

Creating and Managing OS Images

You use OS images as the source of data used to install operating systems onto systems on your network. OS provisioning requires that you import an OS image into Sun xVM Ops Center, and then associate the OS image with an OS profile.

To use OS images in Sun xVM Ops Center, you can:

• Import an OS image from an existing ISO file
• Import a Solaris Flash archive (FLAR) and associate it with an OS image
• Load (copy) an image from physical CD or DVD installation media
• Download an OS image from Sun Microsystems

You can obtain an OS image from the following sources:

• CDs (Linux only)
• DVDs (Solaris, Linux)
• ISO files made from CDs (Linux only)
• ISO files made from DVDs (Solaris, Linux)
• Sun public server (Solaris only)

Check System Requirements for the list of operating systems that you can provision with Sun xVM Ops Center.

The following table lists tasks associated with creating and managing OS images.

Creating and Managing OS Profiles

An OS profile specifies how to configure an OS as it installs onto a set of target systems. An OS profile specifies configuration options, including what OS to install, what software groups to install, and what disk partitions and network settings to use. Each OS profile is associated with a specific OS image. Each OS profile describes how to install and configure one OS image, or one FLAR associated with one OS image.

OS profiles used for the Solaris OS are similar to Sun JumpStart Enterprise Toolkit (JET) templates. Solaris OS profiles use JET technology to provision the operating system. A Sun xVM Ops Center Proxy Controller installation includes the SUNWjet and JetFLASH packages, which provide the base_config, custom, and flash JET modules. These JET modules provide the core JET functions required by Sun xVM Ops Center. If you want to use additional JET modules, you must manually install them on the Proxy Controllers where they will be needed. Refer to Installing JET Modules for more information about installing JET modules.

You can create a Solaris OS profile in one of three ways:

• Create an OS profile without providing any specific JET information.
• Create an OS profile exclusively from a JET template.
• Create an OS profile that includes parameters associated with additional JET modules.

OS profiles for Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux do not use JET parameters, but they do require parameters that are specific to those operating systems.

The following table lists tasks associated with creating and managing OS profiles.

Provisioning Operating Systems

With OS images available and OS profiles defined in Sun xVM Ops Center, you can provision operating systems onto systems on your network. After completing the preparatory steps described in Preparing to Provision an OS, use the procedures listed in the following table to initiate the appropriate OS provisioning job.

The following table lists tasks associated with initiating provisioning jobs.