This section provides a "helicopter view" of the tasks that you perform to prepare and provision the following server types: physical server, bare-metal virtual machine, and virtual machine with template.

You perform the preparatory tasks in BMC BladeLogic Server Automation, making the server and related packages available to BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management. You prepare and initiate the server provisioning request in BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management.

Supported operating systems

Physical servers, bare-metal virtual machines, and virtual machines with templates support the following operating systems as guest operating systems:

• Windows Server 2008 (32- and 64-bit)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4x, 5x, and 6x (32- and 64-bit)

Overview of preparatory tasks in BMC BladeLogic Server Automation

Before you can provision physical servers, bare-metal virtual machines, and virtual machines with templates in BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, you must first configure them in BMC BladeLogic Server Automation.

The configuration processes for the different server types share common procedures in BMC BladeLogic Server Automation. However, the configuration process of each server types does have its distinct steps and unique properties. The following diagram outlines the main procedures in the configuration process of each server type.

Overview of provisioning tasks in BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management

After you publish the operating system and virtual guest packages from BMC BladeLogic Server Automation to BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, you begin the tasks to prepare and initiate the server provisioning request. The following diagram outlines the main procedures of the server provisioning request.