With this initial release of Provisioner 6.3.0, the provisioning of Ubuntu and Debian is supported in a single NIC-single VLAN configuration only. It is not yet supported in a dual NIC-dual VLAN configuration due to lack of an Internet proxy.

 

 

Debian and Ubuntu clients must have Internet or local repository access

 

Create your local Debian or Ubuntu mirror to speed up provisioning times and eliminate the need for Internet access by clients.

 

After you have created your MAC-Indy Role or your MAC-Spec Role, simply power up the system and boot to the network (hit "F12" if your BIOS settings are not set to "Boot to the Network First") and your system will be provisioned:

•MAC-Specific: your system will be automatically provisioned and will reboot when done

•MAC-Independent: you will be presented with the list of operating system installation selections and you will enter your selection from the keyboard (unless you have selected a "Default", in which case, that operating system will be automatically installed).

 

Note: while provisioning both Ubuntu and Debian, you must have access to a repository. In most cases, this means having an Internet connection accessible by the Client being provisioned. Certain IT shops have their own mirrored repositories and thus the Client does not need an Internet connection.

 

When creating a provision profile for either the Ubuntu Desktop or the Ubuntu Server distribution, the default user login (via the GUI) is “debian” or “ubuntu” respectively, and password is insecure (by convention, not to be confused with the Provisioner PXE Server default client password of "unsecure").  The Root user can login only from the command line after hitting “Control-Alt-F1”.

 

Starting with Ubuntu 9.04, passwords must have at least 8 characters.

The Ubuntu Desktop distribution does not allow the root user to log in from the GUI, therefore, you must create the provision profile with a user name other than root.

 

Ubuntu 10.04 gets provisioned by Provisioner with the Reiser File System, not Ext4. Ext4 is known to cause compatibility issues (Windows Server 2008, Red Hat-based Linux distros and Debian cannot be provisioned on top of Ubuntu 10.04 with Ext 4 but can if Ubuntu uses Reiser FS).

 

Important: Cisco provided the control files to provision SATA drives ("sda"). If you have an older IDE ("hda") drive, you must edit the configuration file ("part-man" section) and replace "sda" with "hda", save the file and re-provision your system.