Deploy and patch vSphere hosts in minutes.
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VMware vSphere, the industry-leading virtualization platform for building cloud infrastructures, enables you to run business critical applications with confidence and respond to the business faster. (4:15 mins.)
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Auto Deploy
vSphere Auto Deploy facilitates the rapid provisioning of vSphere hosts by leveraging the network boot capabilities of x86 servers together with the small footprint of the ESXi hypervisor. With Auto Deploy, vSphere hosts are network booted from a central Auto Deploy server where the ESXi software is installed directly into the server’s memory. Once installed a vCenter host profile is used to configure the host. After configuration the host is connected to vCenter where it is available to host virtual machines. The entire process is fully automated allowing new hosts to be quickly provisioned with no manual intervention.
- Move to an agile deployment model
- Centralize ESXi image management
- Eliminate configuration drift
- Run from memory with diskless vSphere hosts
- Stateful deployment of hosts
Move to an Agile Deployment Model
Centralize ESXi Image Management
Auto Deploy enables you to deploy vSphere hosts faster and more efficiently without the need to create or maintain custom installation scripts.
Centralize ESXi Image Management
With Auto Deploy, ESXi software images can be shared by all hosts running on matching hardware. Centralized image management eliminates the need to patch and update individual ESXi hosts. Instead, simply perform a single update to the shared image profile and then reboot the vSphere hosts to have the update applied.
Eliminate Configuration Drift
Each time a vSphere host reboots, it is reinstalled and reconfigured ensuring a consistent image and configuration. Auto Deploy prevents configuration drift and eliminates the need to use precious resources managing the inevitable drift of manual configuration and patch processes.
Run from Memory with Diskless vSphere Hosts
Hosts provisioned with Auto Deploy can be configured to run completely from memory eliminating the need to purchase or allocate local storage to each vSphere hosts. Eliminating the need for a dedicated boot device simplifies SAN configurations with easier LUN zoning and masking.
Stateful Deployments of Hosts
With stateless caching or stateful deployments, even in the event the Auto Deploy server potentially fails, the host can still be booted from the local disk.
The following components make up the vSphere Auto Deploy infrastructure:
Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE)
Auto Deploy is based on the Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE). When a vSphere hosts is powered on it initiates a PXE based network boot. PXE boot requires a DHCP and TFTP server, which must be set up outside of Auto Deploy.
Image Builder CLI
Auto Deploy uses the vSphere
Image Builder CLI to create and maintain custom ESXi Image Profiles to install ESXi hosts.
Auto Deploy Rules Engine
A
rules engine on the Auto Deploy vCenter Server uses information provided by the host during PXE boot to determine the proper image profile and host profile to be used to configure the host, as well as where within vCenter to place the host.
Auto Deploy Web Server
A web server running on the Auto Deploy server is used to deploy the ESXi image along with the host profile.
vCenter Server
The
vCenter Server is used to create and maintain the host profiles used to configure the hosts.
PowerCLI
Both the Image Builder CLI and Auto Deploy server are based on
VMware Power CLI.
