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OS installation profile requirements

This section describes the following topics:

Overview

You use OS Installation Profiles in conjunction with OS Sequences. Installation profiles specify which operating system is to be installed and how it is to be configured. You should create your installation profiles before creating OS Sequences since each sequence must be associated with an Installation Profile.

Before you create your Operating System Installation Profiles, you should have already set up OS Provisioning as described in the SA 10.51 Install section and in Creating Media Resource Locators (MRLs) and have created MRLs pointing to the operating system media using the Import Media tool as described in Setting up the Media Server.

You create OS Installation Profiles by using the install_profile script which is installed with SA's Software Repository component.

The process of creating an Operating System Installation Profile includes:

  1. Specifying properties for the operating system.
  2. Specifying the location of the operating system media from which to perform an installation by selecting an MRL. (See Media Resource Locator Administration for more information on editing MRLs.)
  3. Uploading the following installation resources used during unattended installation:
    • A standard configuration file for the operating system. (See Configuration files for more information.)
    • A build customization script, which can modify the installation process at certain points. (See Build customization scripts for more information.)
    • Microsoft Windows Only:
      • A Hardware Signature, which contains hardware specific information

      • A partitioning disk script file, containing partitioning procedures

      • A formatting disk script file, containing formatting procedures

The following table compares the installation resources across operating systems.

Installation resources for OS installation profiles

Installation Resource

SUSE

Windows Server 2003

Windows Server
2008/2012

Solaris/SPARC 10

Solaris/SPARC 11

Linux or VMware ESX

Configuration File

YAST profile autoinst.xml

unattend.xml

unattend.xml

Jumpstart profile

Automated Installer

Kickstart/Weasel profile

Build Customization Script

Optional executable file:

bcs.tgz

containing “run” script

Optional executable file:

WinPE:

bcs.zip containing runphase.bat script

Optional executable file:

WinPE:

bcs.zip containing runphase.bat script

Optional executable file:

bcs.tar.Z containing run script

Optional executable file:

bcs.tar.Z containing run script

Optional
Executable file: bcs.tgz containing “run” script

Hardware Signature File

Not required

Optional
filename.txt

Optional
filename.txt

Not required

Not required

Not required

Note The configuration file that you upload for each operating system can have any file name. However, when the file is uploaded, OS Provisioning renames the file so that it has the correct name for that operating system.

You can edit an OS Installation Profile later to add support for new hardware or to change the way the operating system is installed. See Modifying existing OS installation profiles.

Specifying software for OS provisioning

You can specify the packages to install during OS Provisioning in the following ways:

  • By uploading a configuration file that specifies to the vendor installation program the software packages to install.
  • By specifying SA Software Policies that add the desired packages in an OS Sequence.

Configuration files

For OS Sequence-based provisioning, depending on the operating system being provisioned, the following configuration file must be specified in an OS Installation Profile:

  • Oracle Solaris/Sun SPARC 10

    JumpStart profile

  • Oracle Solaris/Sun SPARC 11

    Automated Installation

  • Red Hat Linux

    Anaconda (Kickstart configuration file)

  • VMware ESX

    ESX 3.5: Anaconda (Kickstart configuration file)

    ESX 4: Weasel (Kickstart configuration file)

  • SUSE Linux

    YaST2 configuration file

  • Windows

    unattend.xml

Note If your configuration file enables a firewall, you must ensure that all necessary ports and protocols for communication between the SA core and the OS Build Agent and the SA Agent are allowed. Refer to the SA 10.51 Install Guide for details. To help isolate firewall related issues, you should leave firewalls disabled while configuring OS Provisioning for the first time and reenable them once the system is correctly configured. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6, the following line in your ks.cfg profile enables the firewall and allows the SA Agent to function correctly:

firewall --enabled --port 1002:tcp,1002:udp

For VMware ESX prior to 4.1 provisioning, the SA Agent installer may temporarily bypass any OS-based firewall configured in the ks.cfg.

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