Creating a Virtual Machine as a Bare Metal Hypervisor(PART-1)

Installation                                                                                             Download PDF

Step 1: Prepare the Physical Computer
In this step, the BMC board of the physical computer and BIOS settings are configured. Since a Dell PowerEdge T110 is used as an example in this article, the process may vary slightly for other hardware models. The following steps must be performed for each host that is a target for the VMM 2012 bare metal provisioning method:

• Boot the physical server to the BIOS screen.
• Configure the virtualization parameters using the guidelines found at here. 

         1. Open the Processor Settings menu
         2. Enable Virtualization technology
         3. Enable Execute Disable

• Configure the boot mode

         1. Open the Boot Settings menu
         2. Set the Boot Mode to BIOS        

• Configure PXE boot mode

          1. Open the Integrated Devices menu
          2. Set the Embedded GB NIC1 to Enabled with PXE
          3. Save the settings and exit the BIOS menu
          4. Restart the server

• Configure the BMC board

          1. After the server reboots, during the POST screen, the current BMC board configuration displays
          2. Press CTRL-E to configure the BMC board within 5 seconds
          3. Enable IPMI Over LAN
          4. Configure the LAN Parameters

                                                              i.      To use VLANs, enable VLAN support and configure the VLAN ID
                                                             ii.      Set the Domain Name to the Active Directory domain name (e.g.,Contoso.com)
                                                            iii.      Set the Host Name string to the name of the host (e.g., HOU-V1.Contoso.com)
                                                            iv.      Enable IPv4 support
                                                             v.      Set the IP Address Source (e.g., Static)
                                                            vi.      Set the IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.244)
                                                           vii.      Set the Subnet Mask (e.g., 255.255.255.0)
        5. Configure System Services
                                                             i.      Enable System Services
        6. Set LAN User Configuration
                                                             i.      Enable the Access Account
                                                             ii.      Set the IPMI LAN Privilege to ADMIN
                                                            iii.      Set the Account user name (e.g., Root)
                                                            iv.      Enter a Password
        7. Press ESC to save the changes and exit

Step 2: Set Up a PXE Server in VMM 2012
The bare metal deployment process relies on the use of PXE to boot from a WinPE image to support the configuration of a physical server. Therefore, the deployment environment requires a server with Windows Deployment Services (WDS) installed to provide PXE services. The WDS installation must have both the Deployment Server and Transport Server options configured. You do not need any images installed on the WDS server because VMM 2012 will add boot images to the server during configuration. The WDS server must be configured to respond to clients and be on the same subnet as the physical servers to be provisioned.
In order to configure a PXE server in the VMM 2012 installation, follow these steps:

• Open the VMM 2012 Administration Console
• Click on the Fabric Resources in the ribbon bar
• In the Fabric pane, under Servers, select PXE Servers
• Right-click PXE Servers, and select Add PXE Server (Figure 1)

Figure 1: VMM 2012 Fabric Pane

• In the Add PXE Server dialog box (Figure 2):

         1. Enter the computer name of the PXE server (e.g., HOU-PXE.contoso.com)

         2. Enter the user credentials in the format domain name\username for an account that has local Administrator permissions on the PXE server

         3. Click Add

Figure 2: Add PXE Server Dialog Box

Figure 3: PXE Server Setup

• Use the following steps to verify that the PXE server is successfully configured in VMM 2012:

         1. In the VMM 2012 Fabric pane, expand Servers, and then click PXE Servers

         2. In the PXE Servers pane, verify that the PXE server appears in with an agent status of Responding (Figure 4)

Figure 4: PXE Server Status

Step 3: Set Up the VMM Library

After the configuration of the PXE server, you must add a sysprep VHD and optional driver files to the VMM library. The VHD must contain the Windows Server 2008 R2 or SP1 operating system and must be syspreped with the generalize option selected.

In order to place the VHD in the VMM 2012 library, perform the following steps:

In the VMM Administration Console, select Library (Figure 5)

Figure 5:  Library Selection

On the top menu bar, select the Folder tab (Figure 6)

Figure 6:  Folder Tab Selection

• Select Explore and a File Explorer window will open at the root of the library
• Double-click the VHD folder
• Paste the VHD file into the folder (e.g., VHDTemplate.VHD)

Select the Refresh button in the VMM console, and you will see the VHD template displayed in the library under VHDs (Figure 7)

Figure 7:  New VHD template

In order to place additional device drivers in the VMM 2012 library, perform the following steps:

• Download the required drivers from the OEM site (e.g.,  network driver for the Dell T110)
• Select the Explore button to open the root of the VMM 2012 Library

Create a new folder called DRIVERS, and open the folder (Figure 8)

Figure 8: New DRIVERS Folder

• Create and open a new folder (e.g., T110Network)
• Copy the driver files into the folder (e.g., B06ND.INF and B06ND15A.SYS)
• Refresh the Library in the VMM Console

In the Library pane, open the new folders that contain the driver packages (Figure 9)

Figure 9: New Driver Files

Step 4: Create a Run As Account

A Run As account is used to store credentials that VMM 2012 will use during operations that require different privileges. You can create a Run As Account to interface with the BMC board, add a machine to a domain, manage a machine using VMM 2012, manage a network device like a load balancer, or manage a storage array. Accounts can be grouped together in Run As profiles so that it is easier to specify the required accounts with a single profile assignment. In order to create a Run As profile, follow these steps:

Open the Settings workspace (Figure 10)

Figure 10: Settings Workspace

Select Create Run As Profile to launch the Create Run As Profile Wizard (Figure 11)

Figure 11: Create Run As Profile Selection

• On the Name and Description page, enter a name (e.g., Dell T110 Bare Metal), and click Next
• On the Run As Accounts page, click Next
• On the Summary Page, click Finish

After creating a Run As profile, you can create the account that is required to interface with the BMC board during bare metal provisioning, and to automatically join the machine to the domain. To create a Run As Account, follow these steps:

• Open the Settings workspace
• On the icon bar, click Create Run As Account to launch the Create Run As Account Wizard
• On the General page, configure the following options for the BMC board account (Figure 12):

         1. Enter a name and description to identify the credentials in VMM 2012 (e.g., Dell T110 BMC Account)

         2. Select the category of Run As account (e.g., BMC Account)

         3. Enter credentials for the Run As account

              i.      User Name = root

              ii.      Password = password previously set on the server BMC account

        4. Clear the Validate Credentials check box

        5. Click Next

Figure 12: Create Run As Account Wizard General Page

• On the RunAs Profiles page, click Add

On the Select A Scope dialog (Figure 13), set the scope (e.g., Contoso)

Figure 13: Scope and Run As Profile Selections

• Select Browse

Select the desired profile (e.g., Dell T110 Bare Metal), and then click OK (Figure 14)

Figure 14: Selection of Run As Profile

• On the Select Scope dialog, click OK
• On the Run As Profiles page, click Next
• On the Summary page, click Finish
• Repeat Steps 2 through 10 to create an account to join the machine to the domain

From Step 5 ........ Next post (PART-2)