Walkthrough: Performing post-install activities after provisioning

BMC BladeLogic Server Automation (BSA) can be used to perform post-provisioning activities for both 'bare-metal' and virtual systems. This topic describes how to associate post-install activities with a System Package (for bare-metal provisioning) or a Virtual Guest Package (a VGP, for VM provisioning).

It includes the following sections:

Introduction

After creating a system package and a Provisioning Job, or creating a VGP and a Virtual Guest Job, the next logical step is to define post-install actions so that you can install the 'stack' of applications that give the server a personality.

This step allows you to create a fairly minimal install image or template that can be used to provide the basis of a large variety of server profiles. Typically, the 'stack' would include monitoring agents, application software like web servers, BSA Application Servers, databases, and so on.  

What do I need to do before I get started?

This example assumes that you have performed all of the configuration steps outlined in the following table:

How to define post-install actions

• For this walkthrough example, we have logged on as BLAdmin, the default superuser for BSA. This walkthrough is possible using any role that has the ability to read the Deploy Jobs being used for the 'stack', create Batch Jobs and modify System Packages and Virtual Guest Packages. For more information about roles and users, see Built-in roles and users.
• In this example we will define post-install actions to install the 'stack' of applications on a target server.

	Procedure	Example screen
1	In the BSA Console, locate the Deploy Jobs that you want to use to define the server's profile. In the example screenshot, there are multiple Jobs that I might run as post-install activities. Deploy Jobs for software installs such as LAMP and Oracle, Patching Jobs that install software, Auto-Remediate Compliance Jobs, and so on. Typically, customers apply current patch sets, monitoring and other agents, and perform regulatory and build compliance configurations to the system in this post-install action.
2	Locate the System Package or Virtual Guest Package to associate with the Batch Job associated. A System Package or Virtual Guest Package can be associated only with a single post-install Batch Job. In the example you can see that we have multiple system packages, one for each 'stack', even though the base operating system is the same.
3	Create a Batch Job with the desired Deploy Jobs. In this case we have nested Batch Jobs. Nested Batch Jobs may be used to provide for better modularization. For example - there is a job that does some basic post-install configuration for Linux, and pushes SSH Keys. This job could be re-used in multiple 'stacks'. Then there is another job specificly for the LAMP stack. This job could be re-used to push the LAMP stack to existing systems as well as new systems.
4	Associate the Batch Job with the System Package or Virtual Guest Package. Both objects have a 'post-install' tab where you can configure the post-install actions. In the case of the Virtual Guest Package, it's not required to check the 'Wait for Batch Completion'.
5	Then, when a Provisioning Job or Virtual Guest Job is run using this System Package or Virtual Guest Package, the Job in the 'Post-Install Batch Job' will be run against the newly provisioned system.

Wrapping it up

In this walkthrough, you took existing Deploy Jobs and System (or Virtual Guest) Packages, created a Batch Job and associated it with the System (or Virtual Guest) Package to install a stack of software on a target system.

Where to go next

For a more specific example of software deployment, see Walkthrough: Provisioning a LAMP stack using patch catalogs.