Chapter 14: Deploy and Consolidate

Question 1

Auto Deploy Architecture - Auto Deploy Server

Answer 1

Serves images and host profiles to ESXi hosts.

Question 2

Auto Deploy Architecture - Auto Deploy Rules Engine

Answer 2

Sends information to the Auto Deploy server which image profile and which host profile to serve to which host.

Question 3

Auto Deploy Architecture - Image Profiles

Answer 3

Define the set of VIBs to boot ESXi hosts with.

Question 4

Auto Deploy Architecture - Host Profiles

Answer 4

Define machine-specific configuration such as networking or storage setup.
Use the host profile UI to create host profiles.
Create a host profile for a reference host and apply that host profile to other hosts in the environment for a consistent configuration.

Question 5

Auto Deploy Architecture - Host customization

Answer 5

Stores information that a user provides when host profiles are applied to the host.
Host customization might contain an IP address or other information that the user supplied for that host.

Question 6

vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB)

Answer 6

The collection of files that get packaged into an archive similar to a zip file.
The VIBs have different acceptance levels that are not available for modification.
Acceptance Levels (highest to lowest):
VMwareCertified
VMwareAccepted
PartnerSupported
CommunitySupported

Question 7

Image Profile

Answer 7

This is a collection of VIBs used to install the ESXi server and saved as ZIP files or ISO images

Question 8

Software Depot

Answer 8

This is a collection of VIBs either online - accessible via HTTP) or offline (accessible via a USB or CD/DVD)

Question 9

Create ESXi Images with Image Builder (five steps)

Answer 9

1. Download the software depots.
2. Import the software depots into Image Builder
3. Create an Image profile
4. Add and remove VIBs.
5. Save the image profile to ZIP or ISO

Question 10

cmdlet for creating a new image profile

Answer 10

New-EsxImageProfile

• NewProfile
• Name “profile_name”
• Vendor “Vendor_name”
• SoftwarePackage esx-base, esx-xserver

Question 11

cmdlet for importing software depot into the image builder

Answer 11

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot c:\images\VMware-ESXi-6.0.0

Question 12

cmdlet for cloning an existing profile

Answer 12

New-EsxImageProfile

• CloneProfile original_profile_name
• Name new-profile_name
• AcceptanceLevel “Acceptance Level”
• Vendor “Vendor name”

Question 13

cmdlet for adding/removing VIBs

Answer 13

Add/Remove-EsxSoftwarePackage

• ImageProfile “Profile Name”
• SoftwarePackage “Package Name”

Question 14

cmdlet to export the image profile as a zip or ISO file

Answer 14

Export-EsxiImageProfile

• ImageProfile “Profile Name”
• ExportToBundle -FilePath path-to-save-zip-file

Question 15

Auto Deploy Boot Process

Answer 15

PXE –> host sends hardware and network information to the auto deploy server –> auto deploy server streams host and image profiles to the host –> host boots using the image profile –> host assigned to vcenter server, which stored host and image profiles

Question 16

Stateless Caching

Answer 16

By default, Auto Deploy does not store ESXi configuration or state on the host disk.
Instead, an image profile defines the image that the host is provisioned with, and other host attributes are managed through host profiles.
A host that uses Auto Deploy for stateless caching still needs to connect to the Auto Deploy server and the vCenter Server.

Question 17

Stateful Installs

Answer 17

You can provision a host with auto deploy and set up the host to store the image to disk. On subsequent boots, the host boots from disk.