Hardware Requirements for the Client Systems:

The hardware listed in this section is required by the default control files supplied with Cisco Server Provisioner.  You can provision clients with differing architectures if you create customized control files.  Instructions for creating customized control files are given in each chapter covering the provisioning of classes of operating systems.

 

•CPU – For the provisioning of Linux, Windows and ESXi, verify the client has one of the following Intel or AMD CPU architectures:  x86 or x86_64 (also called AMD64 or Intel EM64T). Standard BIOS mode is required (UEFI mode is not supported.)

•Disk drive device drivers – Verify that each Provisioner PXE Server client has disk drive device drivers supported by the OS that will be provisioned to the client

•Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE) – Verify each Provisioner PXE Server client has PXE 2.1 or newer (or is equipped with a PXE-boot floppy disk or USB flash drive)

 

Headless clients (computers without a monitor and keyboard) can be provisioned by using a default MAC-Independent System Role with a Default selection or by using a MAC-specific Provisioning System Role.  

 

Supported Provisioner PXE Server Client Operating Systems

Provisioner PXE Server Clients do not require any software before provisioning (hence the expression “bare metal” provisioning). Cisco Server Provisioner is an "agent-less" solution (no agent resides on any client system).

 

The list currently supported of Linux distributions, Windows operating systems and VMware hypervisors can be found at https://www.linmin.com/site/platforms.html.

 

For Virtual Clients, full virtualization is required.  VMware® Workstation and Server clients can be provisioned if you select a Virtual Machine type that corresponds to the OS or Hypervisor you are trying to install (select "Recommended Settings", not "Minimum Settings", especially for Windows Server 2008/R2 that requires 2GB RAM and 40GB disk) and configure the virtual disk to grow as you go (do NOT click “Allocate disk space now”). Also, when creating your VM, select “bridged networking”.

See the instructions on setting static MAC addresses in VMware Virtual Machines.