Provisioner 6.3 represents a significant departure from prior releases with respect to DHCP and PXE IP address management.

 

There are 2 supported configurations:

•2 NICs with 1 IP on 1 (V)LAN and 1 fully dedicated (V)LAN (recommended for orchestrated environments)

•1 NIC with 1 (V)LAN

 

2 NICs and 2 (V)LANs:

•1 NIC will use 1 IP address on a "Management" (V)LAN. This (V)LAN is used to access the Provisioner PXE Server GUI, and is also used during Provisioner to access the Internet (for CentOS and RHEL-based installations) or a local RHN Satellite (RHEL only). It is expected that this "Management IP" is on an existing (V)LAN in use in the customer environment.

•1 NIC will be used for a dedicated, non-routable Provisioning (V)LAN. This (V)LAN is where systems (blades, servers, VMs) to be provisioned or imaged reside. No other systems may exist on this (V)LAN, other than production systems initially provisioned or imaged using Provisioner or Clients that are awaiting to be moved to a Production (V)LAN using an automation solution such as the Cisco Process Orchestrator ("Orchestrator"). This dedicated Provisioning (V)LAN must be a dedicated private (V)LAN (e.g., 212.49.49.0 or 192.168.0.0). This Provisioning (V)LAN must be a full, class C subnet (255.255.255.0). An orchestrator will move a system from a production (V)LAN to this Provisioning (V)LAN to be provisioned or imaged, then move the system back to the Production (V)LAN when the Client system has been provisioned or imaged.

 

1 NIC and 1 (V)LAN:

In this configuration, a range of PXE IP addresses (PXE Event Range) is dedicated to Provisioner and the (non-PXE) IP addresses outside this range can be used for production purposes by both systems provisioned by Provisioner and systems independent of Provisioner. This is the recommended configuration for environments without orchestration and for environments with a relatively small number of systems (e.g, around 230 production systems allowing for a PXE IP range of 20, allowing up to 20 concurrent provisioning and imaging events). This model closely follows the configuration of prior releases of Provisioner with the added benefit of Provisioner's DHCP refusing to service ("exclude") IP addresses of systems not provisioned by Provisioner. Other DHCP or IP management services on this (V)LAN must exclude service to the PXE Event Range of the Provisioner PXE Server and must forward PXE boot requests to the Provisioner PXE Server's IP address.

 

 

New or enhanced in Provisioner 6.3

 

•New DHCP PXE Event IP Management in dual-(V)LAN environments: Provisioner controls all the IP addresses in its Provisioning VLAN.

 

•New DHCP PXE Event IP Management in single-(V)LAN environments: Provisioner automatically manages the range of PXE IP addresses in the PXE Event Range during provisioning and imaging, services the needs of provisioned systems using IP addresses outside the PXE Event IP range while refusing to service systems on the (V)LAN that are unknown to Provisioner.

 

•Improved Provisioner installation method: a standalone "Server Preparation" script must be successfully executed to ensure network configuration conformance prior to installing Provisioner. If the single-NIC or dual-NIC network requirements for Provisioner are not met, Provisioner cannot be installed.

 

•Post-OS Installation Boot Scripting: after an OS is installed, upon reboot, the Client executes a script to detect what network it resides on. For as long as the Client detects that it resides on a (V)LAN other than the intended Production (V)LAN, the Client will use a dynamic IP address, initially on the Provisioning (V)LAN. After the Client is relocated to another VLAN, either manually or via an automated solution such as the Cisco Process Orchestrator (CPO), upon rebooting on this Production VLAN, the IP address will be changed to the static IP address requested by the user in the GUI or through the API (e.g., by the Cisco Process Orchestrator). Initially, this scripting will be available for RHEL/CentOS, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Note that ESXi and ESX will retain a Provisioning VLAN PXE IP address and the IP must be changed via other means (e.g., the Cisco Process Orchestrator) upon relocation to another VLAN. SLES/OpenSUSE and Debian/Ubuntu will offer this Post-OS install scripting in a future release. Windows Server 2003 will always retain the Provisioning VLAN PXE IP address assigned by Provisioner during provisioning.

 

•PXE Event States: the Clients being provisioned provide a near-realtime PXE Event State to the Provisioner PXE Server when being provisioned with RHEL/CentOS, Windows Server 2008/R2 and ESXi.

 

•API enhancement: when an external application such as the Cisco Process Orchestrator uses the API to "read" a MAC-Specific Provisioning Role, the PXE Event State will be provided in near-realtime. In this was, the external application can determine intermediate provisioning states all the way to when the Client system reboots on the Provisioning VLAN, at which time the intelligent automation solution such as the Cisco Process Orchestrator can relocate the freshly-provisioned system from the Provisioning VLAN to a Production VLAN.

 

 

Limitations in Provisioner 6.3

 

 

•Provisioning SLES/OpenSUSE is supported in a single VLAN configuration only. PXE Event States are not returned to the Provisioner PXE Server.

 

•Provisioning Debian and Ubuntu is supported in a single VLAN configuration only. PXE Event States are not returned to the Provisioner PXE Server.

 

•When provisioning Windows Server 2003/XP or ESXi with MAC-Specific Provisioning, the IP address used upon reboot by the Client system is the Provisioning VLAN PXE IP address assigned during provisioning, not the static IP address entered in the GUI or provided by the API. Windows Server 2003/XP have always been provisioned to use DHCP/dynamic IP addresses.

 

•Upgrading from prior versions of Provisioner is not supported. A fresh installation of Provisioner 6.3 is required.