Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Stateful Mode
Just like Stateful Caching mode, the Auto Deploy Stateful mode is coni gured by editing host
proi les within vCenter and the boot order settings in the host BIOS.
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1.
Within vCenter, navigate to the Host Proi les section: vCenter
Home
Host Proi les.
2.
Create a new host proi le or edit the existing one attached to your host.
3.
Navigate to System Image Cache Coni guration under Advanced Coni guration Settings.
4.
Select Enable Stateful Installs On The Host.
5.
Input the disk coni guration details, using the same disk syntax as listed earlier in the
section “Performing an Unattended Installation of VMware ESXi.” By default it will pop-
ulate the i rst available disk (see Figure 2.10).
6.
Click Finish to end the Host Proi le Wizard.
7.
Next you need to coni gure the boot order in the host BIOS to boot from the local disk
i rst, and the network second. This procedure will differ depending on your server type.
8.
The host will boot into Maintenance mode, and you need to apply the host proi le by
clicking Remediate Host on the host Summary tab.
9.
You will need to provide IP addresses for the host and then reboot the host.
10.
Upon this reboot, the host is now running off the local disk like a “normally provisioned”
ESXi host.
vSphere Auto Deploy offers some great advantages, especially for environments with lots of
ESXi hosts to manage, but it can also add complexity. As mentioned earlier, it all comes down to
the design and requirements of your vSphere deployment.
Performing Post-installation Confi guration
Whether you are installing from a CD/DVD or performing an unattended installation of ESXi,
once the installation is complete, there are several post-installation steps that are necessary or
might be necessary, depending on your specii c coni guration. We'll discuss these tasks in the
following sections.
Installing the vSphere C# Client
This might come as a bit of shock for IT professionals who have grown accustomed to manag-
ing Microsoft Windows-based servers from the server's console (even via Remote Desktop), but
ESXi wasn't designed for you to manage it from the server's console. Instead, you should use the
vSphere Client.
In earlier versions, ESXi and vCenter were administered with the C# (pronounced “see
sharp”) Client. vSphere 5.0 introduced the Web Client. Although the i rst iteration of the Web
Client was not as feature rich as the C# Client, with vSphere 5.1 and 5.5 the tables have turned.
To ensure that you can follow which client the instructions are for, we will use the terms
vSphere
Client
and
Web
Client
.
