vCO - Auto Deploy Plug-in

I used the holidays to test around with the new vCenter Orchestrator Plug-in for VMware Auto Deploy. The main value is that there is no need to use Microsoft Powershell which isn´t really often available in pure linux environments :)

First you have to configure the vCenter Server Appliance to act as a TFTP or DHCP server if this one isn´t already in place. This page describes the DHCP/TFTP configuration:

http://jreypo.wordpress.com/tag/vsphere-auto-deploy/

Once the services are configured you have to download the ESXi depot file from our download area and place it on a webserver. After that you can download the Plug-in for the vCenter Orchestrator and install it with the vCenter Orchestrator configuration interface.




Now you can add the vCenter Server Appliance as a VMware Auto Deploy host:

After adding the host you need to add a depot too. Please note that you have to extract the ESXi depot .zip file downloaded in the beginning cause you have to point to the "index.xml" file in the package.

With the host and depot you can now create a deploy rule and activate it with the included workflows.

You can check the activation really fast by clicking the "Inventory" tab and taking a look into the Auto Deploy tree.

If everything looking as expected you can now check to start a host system (I tested it with some virtual machines) and see if it boots into an ESXi image.

This is just a small quick start, there are some more possibilities (answer files etc.) but it shows how to get your feet on the street. See you next year!

P.S.: The TFTP/DHCP service isn´t a supported scenario. Thanks William for the hint.