Page History

...

This document assumes familiarity with xCAT and VMware.

Terminology

• Management node: Linux server with the following components installed:
  • VCL management node components
  • xCAT (only if bare metal provisioning will be utilized)
• Compute node: Refers to the target blade or virtual machine on which Windows is installed.
• Provisioning engine: Software which is able to interact with the compute node making it possible to install an OS on it
  • VCL can utilize several different provisioning engines including xCAT, VMware Server, VMware ESX, and VMware ESXi.  xCAT is a cluster management tool used to install images on bare metal blades.\
  • The provisioning engine may be a hypervisor if the compute nodes are virtual machines (VMware)
  • The provisioning engine may interact with the BladeCenter's management module if the compute nodes are IBM blades (xCAT)
  • The provisioning engine may utilize IMPI if the compute nodes support it (xCAT)

Requirements

You will need the following:

...

These instructions assume you have root access and are using a bash shell:

Add a New Image to the VCL Database

Add the image to the VCL database. A row needs to be added to the following tables:

...

 INSERT INTO `vcl`.`resource` (
`id` ,
`resourcetypeid` ,
`subid`
)
VALUES (
NULL , '13', '7'
)

VMware Only: Create a Virtual Machine

The instructions assume that VMware has been configured with the following bridged networks:

...

1. Launch the VMWare Server console:

   No Format
   vmware &

2. Connect to Local Host
3. Create a new VM
   1. Virtual Machine Configuration: Typical
   2. Guest Operating System: Microsoft Windows
      Version: Windows XP Professional (select the appropriate version if you are not installing XP)
   3. Name: vmwarewinxp-base7-v1
   4. Network connection: Custom
      /dev/vmnet0
   5. Disk size: 8.0 GB
      1. Allocate all disk space now: no
      2. Split disk into 2GB files: yes
4. Edit virtual machine settings 
   1. Configure the VM CD-ROM drive to use the Windows XP ISO image
      1. Connection: Use ISO image: browse to path of Windows XP ISO image
         /install/WinXP+SP3.iso
   2. Add: Ethernet Adapter
      1. Network Connection: Custom
         /dev/vmnet2

Install Windows

Follow the steps: Install Windows for a Base Image

VMware Only: Install VMware Tools

1. Power on the VM if it is not already powered on
2. Install VMWare Tools  (Note: you must have a CD-ROM drive configured for the VM in order to install VMware Tools)
   1. Click on the VM menu and select "Install VMWare Tools"
   2. Select Typical and proceed through the setup pages accepting the defaults
   3. Reboot the VM when installation is complete

Install Cygwin SSHD

Follow the steps: Install & Configure Cygwin SSHD 

Insert an Imaging Reservation into the VCL Database

An imaging request needs to be manually inserted into the VCL database to begin the automated imaging process.  The imaging process performs several steps to prepare the VCL image to be captured and then initiates the capture.

...