Overview

The system package points to the specified boot image file, together with a set of rules and scripts, in the PXE datastore. The boot image enable you to execute the operating system installer.

Guidelines for creating system packages for the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management environment

To enable a successful publish of system packages for BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, you must store them in the CSM_OS_Packages subfolder of the Depot folder in the navigation tree of the BMC BladeLogic Server Automation Console (Depot > CSM_OS_Packages):

1. In the BMC BladeLogic Server Automation console, access the Depot -> CSM-OS-Packages folder.
2. Open the configuration data and Property Dictionary of the selected package. A sample Windows package is shown below.
   
   
   
   And a sample Linux package follows:
   
   
   
   
3. When entering or modifying parameters for the system packages, keep in mind these guidelines for BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management (Windows or Linux operating system):

• Under the Basic Config tab, enter NAME in the Computer name field. When the system package is selected at provisioning time, BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management supplies the hostname of the server to be provisioned or the IP address (if configured to do so).
• In the Local Properties tab, specify the name of the PXE datastore instance for the DATASTORE variable. Use the same format convention:CSM Datastore - name of pod.
  

For Linux system packages: Local properties and kickstart entries

BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management cannot use Linux system packages with customized kickstart entries, which are defined under the Kickstart Entries tab. Instead, you can use the ‘Additional entries for the kickstart file’ section of the Kickstart Entries tab to append new entries for the system package.

When provisioning multiple network interface cards/addresses on Linux systems, add local properties to the system package using the following formats.

The following example is for kickstart purposes and is added to the Additional entries for the kickstart file section. It assumes that you are provisioning for a Linux system package with more than one network interface and that the first network interface card has just one address and does not need to be covered. It also assumes that the second network interface card has two addresses on it.

For Windows 2008 system packages: Unattended entries

BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management cannot use Windows system packages with customized unattended entries, which are defined under the Unattended Entries tab. Instead, you can use the ‘Additional Unattend Entries’ section of the Unattended Entries to replace existing or add new entries for the system package.

Follow these steps to add the XML entries to the system package:

1. Under Additional Unattend Entries, click the Plus sign.
2. In the top-left panel, expand the Specialize listing, and select the Microsoft-Windows-TCPIP node.
3. Display the node by specifying a static IP address (which the system ignores).

4. In the Add/Replace XML Component section, paste the following XML code:
   
   

   <component xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" language="neutral" name="Microsoft-Windows-TCPIP" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" versionScope="nonSxS">WINDOWS_UNATTEND </component>

After system package creation

After you create a system package, add a Network Shell (NSH) script called "CSM_Delayed_Reboot" to the Depot subfolder CSM_Scripts.

The script should look similar to the following example:

Next steps