Custom attribute substitution

The SA Provisioning basics section describes how to use the Build Plan step parameters using custom attributes for personalization.

Build Plans make use of custom attributes for unlimited personalization including the ability to define and use your own custom attributes.

As you can see in the Edit Build Plan Window above, Build Plans support a simple syntax for custom attribute substitution in the form:

@CustomAttributeName:default value@

This pattern is replaced by the custom attribute value you specify or the default value if there is no custom attribute specified. This substitution occurs in every text-based resource that Build Plans use as such as scripts, configuration templates and script parameters.

For example, if you want to specify a parameter for the media protocol for a Build Plan, edit the parameter of the Set Media Source step to:

@MediaProtocol:nfs@://@MediaServer@/mnt/share/rhel6_X86-64

This specification is persistent, unless you define a different @MediaProtocol custom attribute in the server hierarchy or in the Build Plan. The media protocol can be changed to, for example, HTTP by setting this Custom Attribute to HTTP.

Even though Build Plans are not attached to servers, custom attributes defined in the Build Plan are still used. The Build Plan custom attributes have a lesser priority and are overwritten if the same custom attribute is present on the server hierarchy. For more information about custom attributes and how they are inherited, see Defining custom attributes.