Configuring the data store for PXE provisioning

Configuring the data store sets required values for accessing the data sources for provisioning.

In particular, you define the location of the data store, which is where you store sets of installation files that are used for provisioning operating systems. Data store values are stored in the Data Store system object, which you can edit by using the Property Dictionary.

• Before you begin
• To configure the data store
• Where to go from here

Before you begin

• Any data store you specify must already be set up. For information about setting up a data store, see Setting-up-and-sharing-a-data-store.
• To provision from a local data store, set up the local data store and use the local data store instance as described in Provisioning-Windows-2003-2008-or-2012-servers-from-a-local-data-store.

To configure the data store

1. Select Configuration > Property Dictionary View.
2. In the Property Class Navigation panel at the left, open the Built-in Property Classes folder. Then open the DataStore sub-folder. Click Jumpstart DataStore, Pxe DataStore, NIM DataStore, or Ignite DataStore.
3. In the right panel, click the Instances tab.
   A DataStore instance specifies the server that functions as a data store. You must create at least one instance of a data store. You can create more than one instance. For example:
   • One data store instance could contain files for provisioning Windows systems, and another instance could contain files for provisioning Linux systems.
   • For an enterprise WAN, you could create one data store instance to serve the London network segment, another to serve the New York network segment, and a third to serve the Tokyo network segment.

4. Create a data store instance. As you create this instance, fill in the following properties:
   To configure a data store instance for PXE provisioning, set the following property values.

   PXE Property Name	Description
   LOCATION	(Required) The name or IP address of the server that functions as the data store. (Note that this server must have a running RSCD agent that is licensed for the BMC Server Automation Console.) Note If the PXE server, TFTP server, and the data store are all on the same machine, follow these naming rules: To provision Linux systems, set the LOCATION property to the IP address (not the host name). To provision Microsoft Windows systems, set the LOCATION property to the host name (not the IP address). ESX Server 2.5 only: The data store is exposed via NFS. Set LOCATION to the name of the NFS server.
   FULL_PATH	(Required) The full path to the directory that functions as a data store. For a data store that resides on a Windows system, specify the path using Windows path format; for a data store that resides on a UNIX-like system, use UNIX path format. When you identify the location of installation files required to provision a particular operating system, specify the location in relation to the directory you identify in this step.
   VIRTUAL_DIR	(Required) Provides the name of the virtual directory used to access the data store. UNIX systems: Part of the installation process includes providing HTTP access to the root of your data store (the directory specified in the LOCATION and VIRTUAL_DIR properties). The VIRTUAL_DIR property refers to the directory component of the URL that points to this directory. For example, suppose your data store resides on a machine called host1, and your FULL_PATH is /var/installs/redhat  Suppose that you set up HTTP access to this directory with the following URL: http://host1/installs You would then set the VIRTUAL_DIR property to: installs Windows systems: Part of the installation process includes setting up directory sharing for the data store directory. For example, suppose LOCATION is defined as host2 and you set up directory sharing for a data store directory called datastore: \\host2\datastore  You would then set the VIRTUAL_DIR property to: datastore ESX Server 2.5: The name of the share on the NFS server specified by LOCATION.
   USERNAME PASSWORD	Provides the user name and password required to access the data store. Linux data store only: USERNAME and PASSWORD do not require values unless you have password-restricted access to your data store. ESX Server 2.5 only: The user name and password required to access the NFS share specified by VIRTUAL_DIR. Windows data store with domain accounts only: In the USERNAME field, specify the domain name and user name as domainname\username.

Where to go from here

Stock the data store with the installers and other files that you expect to use, as described in the following tasks. See Stocking-the-data-store.