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This chapter contains the following sections:
Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data Bare Metal Agent (BMA) automates the process of using a Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) to install operating systems on bare metal servers or virtual machines. Bare Metal Agent provides the following services that are required for a functional PXE install environment:
Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP)
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)
When this environment is operational and Bare Metal Agent and Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data are correctly configured, you can build PXE installation tasks into any Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data infrastructure workflow.
You can access Bare Metal Agent through Secure Shell (SSH). You can also perform services on Bare Metal Agent, such as DHCP configuration and starting and stopping services, through Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data. A single Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data node can support multiple Bare Metal Agent applications.
For proper installation and operation of Bare Metal Agent, your environment must meet the minimum system requirements.
Name | Requirements |
---|---|
VMware vCenter Server |
4.0 and later |
Minimum reservation in VMware vCenter |
Minimum number of CPUs—2 Memory—3 GB Hard disk—40 GB |
Before you install Bare Metal Agent, take note of the following guidelines and limitations.
Each Bare Metal Agent application can connect to only one Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data node.
After installation and configuration, your environment must have the following network availability:
Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data must be able to reach Bare Metal Agent over the network.
The bare metal servers (blade or rack) must be able to reach the DHCP network of the Bare Metal Agent during the initial stage of operating system installation over PXE.
If you use DHCP, locate a DHCP server in the same PXE VLAN as Bare Metal Agent. Then configure that DHCP server with the IP address range required by your DHCP server.
When setting up the network configuration, the most common configuration uses one PXE VLAN and one Management VLAN (separate VLANs). However, Bare Metal Agent supports one VLAN for both, if you prefer.
Configure the VLANs end-to-end between Cisco UCS, Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data, and Bare Metal Agent. However, when you configure Bare Metal Agent, do not assume that routing occurs between the PXE_VLAN Layer 2 network and the Management VLAN network.
If you configure Bare Metal Agent to use DHCP, locate and configure the DHCP server in the PXE VLAN and its subnet. This DHCP server serves the transient IP address required for the PXE process. In an environment with two VLANs, the server is allocated an IP address from the subnet of the Management VLAN. An IP address pool managed by Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data assigns this IP address.
If you configure Bare Metal Agent with two VLANs, set up two IP address attributes:
With Bare Metal Agent, use the Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data TFTP server to ensure that configurations such as dynamic variables function properly.
When you add a Bare Metal Agent account, Bare Metal Agent configures the TFTP server when services are started.
For detailed information on upgrading Bare Metal Agent, see the Cisco UCS Director Upgrade Guide.