powertool to boot from ISO

[fernGO]

Hello,

I'm trying to automate the install of Esxi servers in Cisco Blades, using powertools and I'm struggling to:

- attach a remote media ISO

- force the blade on next reboot to boot from the ISO

I'm able to achieve the first point by doing all of this:

# 1. Create Media policy

$mo = Add-UcsVmediaPolicy -Descr "Mounts Cisco Custom ISO for ESXi 7" -Name "ESXi-7-HTTP" -Ucs $ucs_connection

# 2. Create Media Entry and assign it to the Media policy

$mo1 = $mo | Add-UcsVmediaMountEntry -DeviceType "cdd" -ImageFileName "VMware_ESXi_7.0.2_17867351_Custom_Cisco_4.1.3_a.iso" -ImagePath "/packages" -MountProtocol "http" -RemoteIpAddress "10.10.10.10" -MappingName "Esxi7"

# 3. Assign Media Policy to the Service Profile

$serviceprofile | Set-UcsServiceProfile -VmediaPolicyName ESXi-7-HTTP

# check if t's mounted and seems it is:

$serviceprofile = Get-UcsServiceProfile -Ucs $ucs_connection |? UsrLbl -like EsxiName

Get-UcsBlade -dn $serviceprofile.PnDn -ucs $ucs_connection | Get-UcsMgmtController -LimitScope | Get-UcsCimcvmediaActualMountList | get-UcsCimcvmediaActualMountEntry

To force the blade on next reboot to boot from the ISO, I'm trying this:

# 1. Create boot policy to boot from CD

$BootPolicy = Add-UcsBootPolicy -Ucs $ucs_connection -Name "ESXi_Install" -ModifyPresent -EnforceVnicName yes -Org org-root

(here I assign manually the virtual media as the first boot option of this policy)

# 2. assign boot policy to service profile

$serviceprofile | Set-UcsServiceProfile -BootPolicyName "ESXi_Install" -force

Result:

When the server boots, it can't find the "cdd" or virtual media booting option

Any ideas what am I missing and if there is an easier way of accomplish this?

This seems to me a quite complex process compared to other systems like HP, where you connect to the ilo IP and then run a couple of commands to create the media point and to change the boot option. Literally 3 lines

In Cisco it seems like you have to change profile settings just to do a one off booting setting change, of course I may be wrong (and I hope I am)

Thanks for your help

[Mark Elsen]

              - FYI : https://developer.cisco.com/codeexchange/github/repo/CiscoDevNet/esxi-auto-installer/

 M.

[fernGO]

Thanks,

The project looks interesting, but we're trying to have everything automated. And it looks like you have to select manually the ISO to upload.

So we have a jenkins job where it prompts basic data, like ESXi name, IP settings, etc, and a yml file that is read from the script with the custom iso to install, baseline to be applied and a few other things.

Thanks again 

F.