Creating a Virtual Machine as a Bare Metal Hypervisor(PART-2)

Step 5: Create a Host Profile                                                             Download PDF

A host profile provides the host configuration settings, location of images for deployment, and account information that is required for a bare metal deployment. In order to create a host profile, follow these procedures:

• Open the Library Workspace
• Click on the Create button and select Host Profile

On the Profile Definition page (Figure 15), enter a profile name (e.g., Dell T110 Profile), and then click Next

Figure 15: New Host Profile Wizard Main Page

• On the OS Image page (Figure 16), click the Browse button and select the VHD file (e.g., VHDTemplate.vhd) from the list, click OK to exit the selection dialog, then click Next

Figure 16: OS Image Page

On the Hardware Configuration page, click the Driver Filter option (Figure 17)

Figure 17:  Hardware Configuration Page

• Select the option to filter by tags, click the Select button, highlight the appropriate option (e.g., DELLT110), click the Add button, and then click OK
• Click Next to continue

On the OS Configuration page (Figure 18), select Domain, enter the domain name (e.g., Contoso) for the domain name, click Browse, select the appropriate Run As profile (e.g., Dell T110 Bare Metal), and then click OK

Figure 18: OS Configuration Page

• Select Admin Password, set the password to use as the local administrator password on the host, and then click Next
• On the Host Settings page, enter a path to store new VMs that are created on the host (or use the default path of %SystemDrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V)
• Click Next to accept the default path

On the Summary page (Figure 19), review your selections and then click Finish

Figure 19: Summary Page

Initiating a Bare Metal Deployment

Once the environment is configured to support bare metal provisioning, you can start to provision servers. This involves running the Add Resource wizard to discover a physical host and perform a bare metal deployment. The Add Resource wizard will configure settings such as the host group and the host profile to use, set custom deploymenIn VMM 2012, select the Fabric workspace.

In the ribbon bar, select Add Resources (Figure 20), and then select Hyper-V Hosts and Clusters to launch the Add Resource Wizard

Figure 20: Add Resources Selection

On the Resource Location page (Figure 21), select Physical Computer to be Provisioned into Hyper-V Hosts, click Next

Figure 21: Resource Location Selection

• On the Credentials and Protocol page (Figure 22), follow these steps:

          1. Beside the Run As account box, select the Browse button, then select the BMC account (e.g., Dell T110 BMC Account), and then click OK

          2. In the Protocol list, click the out-of-band management protocol to use for discovery (e.g., IPMI), and then click Next

Figure 22: Credentials and Protocol Selection

On the Discovery Scope page (Figure 23), select the option to specify an IP address range that includes the IP address of the BMC board, (e.g., 192.168.1.244), and then click Next

Figure 23: Discovery Scope Selection

• On the Target Resources page (Figure 24), after searching the provided IP address range, the list of discovered computers is displayed

Select the check box next to the desired host (e.g., Dell PowerEdge T110), and then click Next

Figure 24: Target Resources Selection

• On the Provisioning Options page (Figure 25), follow these steps:

          1. In the Location list, select the host group (e.g., Contoso) to assign as the target location for the new Hyper-V host

          2. Select network settings through DHCP

          3. Select a host profile that contains the predefined network settings (e.g., Dell T110 Profile)

          4. Click Next

Figure 25: Provisioning Options Selection

• On the Deployment Customization page (Figure 26), when selecting a host profile that depends on DHCP settings, follow these steps:

          1. Select the host (e.g., Dell PowerEdge T110) from the list

          2. In the Computer Name text box, enter a computer name for the selected entry (e.g., HOU-HV1)

          3. When there is a status of Complete in the Required Settings column, click Next

          4. Review the warning message, and then click OK to continue

Figure 27: Add Resource Wizard Summary Page

• The Jobs dialog box appears so that you can track the deployment progress
• Upon job completion, ensure that all steps show a status of Completed, and then close the dialog box

Conclusion

One of the new and exciting features in VMM 2012 is the ability to automate the provisioning of new Hyper-V hosts configured with a BMC board from a bare metal state. Requiring only configuration of the physical server BMC board and the deployment environment, one or more Hyper-V hosts can be easily provisioned and added to VMM 2012 as managed hosts, reducing the complexity and time to bring new Hyper-V hosts and virtual machines online.