OS Deployment
BMC Client Management uses the Pre-boot eXecution Environment (PXE) industry standard to deploy operating systems on target devices. The PXE standard allows you to install an operating system on a device without the need for an operating system to be present on the local disk of the target device. This functionality of PXE allows IT departments to deploy operating systems with the possibility to remotely install or re-install individual devices, groups of devices and even complete subnets of the infrastructure. The target devices either already have an operating system installed or they are "fresh" devices.
The OSD architecture is based on one single OSD Manager and image repositories at each physical site with one network boot listener per subnet.
Operating system deployment in the BMC Client Management key components:
- OSD agent
- OSD manager
- Image repository
- Network boot listener
- Storage device
- Projects
- OSD wizard
Operating system deployment in the BMC Client Management phases:
- The preparation phase: The preparation phase prepares the environment needed by the OSD manager as well as the files required for the actual deployment. It also involves the configuring and creating components required by the OSD manager, such as drivers, disk configuration, and so on.
- The project phase: The project phase creates the actual deployment project. Specific components for that project are selected and published to target devices.
- The execution phase: This third phase can be added to verify the situation on the network after the remote installation has taken place and ensure that all the target devices are properly installed, up and running.