You can use Lenovo XClarity Orchestrator to manage the OS-images repository and deploy operating-system images.
Before you begin
XClarity Orchestrator does not directly deploy operating systems to devices. Instead, it sends requests to the applicable resource manager to perform the deployment. Ensure that the resource manager has the necessary licenses to perform OS deployment functions.
Review the deployment considerations before you attempt to deploy operating systems to your managed devices (see Operating-system deployment considerations).
Ensure that all firmware on the managed server is at the latest levels (see Provisioning updates to managed resources).
Ensure that the configuration on the managed server is up to date (see Provisioning server configurations).
It is recommended that you do not use XClarity Orchestrator to perform a bare-metal operating-system deployment on Converged and ThinkAgile appliances.
Ensure that servers are managed using XClarity Administrator v4.0 or later.
About this task
XClarity Orchestrator provides a simple way to deploy operating-systems images to bare-metal servers, which typically do not have an operating system installed. If you deploy an operating system to a server that has an operating system installed, XClarity Orchestrator performs a fresh installation that overwrites the partitions on the target disks.
Several factors determine the amount of time that is required to deploy an operating system to a server.
- The amount of RAM that is installed in the server, which affects how long the server takes to start up.
- The number of and types of I/O adapters that are installed on the server, which affects the amount of time that it takes to collect inventory data. It also affects the amount of time that it takes for the UEFI firmware to start when the server is started up. During an operating-system deployment, the server is restarted multiple times.
- The amount of network traffic. The operating-system image is downloaded to the server over the data network or the operating-system deployment network.
- The amount of RAM, processors, and hard drive storage that is available to the orchestrator server and resource managers.
Procedure
The following figure illustrates the workflow for deploying an OS image to a server.
- Import OS images.
Before you can deploy an operating system to a server, you must first import the operating system image into the OS-images repository in the XClarity Orchestrator resource manager. When you import an OS image:
- Ensures that there is sufficient space in the OS-images repository before importing the operating system. If you do not have sufficient space to import an image, delete an existing image from the OS-images repository and attempt to import the new image again.
- Creates one or more profiles of that image and stores the profile in the OS-images repository. Each profile includes the OS image and installation options. For more information about predefined OS image profiles, see Operating-system image profiles.
A base operating system is the full OS image that was imported into the OS-images repository. The imported base image contains predefined profiles that describe the installation configurations for that image. You can create custom profiles based on predefined profiles in the base OS image that can be deployed for specific configurations.
For a list of supported base and custom operating systems, see Supported operating systems.
- Customize and assign the OS profile
Operating system profiles are created automatically when you import an operating system. The profiles that are created are based on the operating system type and version. You can modify the profile, including OS credentials, hostname, networking and storage settings, license keys, and storage location.
- Assign and deploy the OS profile
You can assign an OS profile to one or more target servers, and then deploy the profile to those servers. . Remember that to deploy an operating system, the server must have a deployment status of Ready.
XClarity Orchestrator does not directly deploy operating systems to devices. Instead, it sends a request to the applicable resource manager to perform the deployment, and then tracks the progress of the request. XClarity Orchestrator transfers the applicable images to the resource manager and creates a request to start a job on the resource manager to perform the deployment.
Before you attempt to deploy an operating-system image, review the Operating-system deployment considerations.
For more information about assign and deploying an OS profile, see the Deploying an operating-system image.