Hi All 
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In the eighteenth part of our series, we'll go through vSphere Auto Deploy. vSphere Auto Deploy feature is an important feature for large-scale deployment of ESXi Hosts in any virtual environment. This feature is vCenter based and evolves many components, like: vCenter, PowerCLI and Host Profiles as well as some third party components, like: DHCP & TFTP servers.
Credits:
- Duncan Epping
- Gabrie van Zanten
- Joe Keegan
Now, Let's Start...
1. vSphere Auto Deploy Guide:
These marvelous guides by Duncan Epping are real deep-dive guides in Auto Deploy feature. Unfortunately, they are based on vSphere 5.0, but there’s no massive change in subsequent releases of vSphere (confirmation needed):
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2011/08/25/using-vsphere-5-auto-deploy-in-your-home-lab/
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2011/09/05/cheat-sheet-auto-deploy/
Another article about Auto Deploy by Gabrie van Zanten is deep-diving also in this awesome feature. Unfortunately, it is also based on vSphere 5.0:
http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/vsphere-5-how-to-run-esxi-stateless-with-vsphere-auto-deploy/
2. Deploy Rules and Deploy Rule Sets:
Deploy Rules and Deploy Rule Sets are important part in Auto Deploy process. They control the behavior of Auto Deploy process through certain defined rules created by Administrator that can be grouped in either Active or Working Rule Sets.
This official article by VMware explains them in details:
Another article by Joe Keegan also explains it further:
http://infrastructureadventures.com/2012/03/19/vmware-auto-deploy-rules-rule-sets/
Lastly, I formed a procedure for creating and administrating Rules and Rule Sets:
1-) After adding all rules using (New-DeployRule) PowerCLI, define which rules to be active and which to be working.
2-) Create your active rule set using (Set-DeployRuleSet -DeployRule).
3-) Create your working rule set using (Set-DeployRuleSet -DeployRule -NoActivate).
Keep in mind that, using (Remove-DeployRule -DeployRule) will remove the deploy rule from working rule set then will activate the working rule set while using (Remove-DeployRule -DeployRule -NoActivate) will remove the rule from the working rule set only. In addition, using (Remove-DeployRule -DeployRule -Delete) will remove the rule entirely.
3. Auto Deploy Troubleshooting:
This KB article by VMware is a comprehensive guide for Auto Deploy troubleshooting:
Share the knowledge ....
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