Overview

This chapter contains the following sections:

Cisco UCS Director Baremetal Agent

Cisco UCS Director Baremetal Agent (Baremetal Agent) automates the process of using a Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) to install operating systems on baremetal servers or virtual machines. Baremetal 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 Baremetal Agent and Cisco UCS Director are correctly configured, you can build PXE installation tasks into any Cisco UCS Director infrastructure workflow.

You can access Baremetal Agent through Secure Shell (SSH). You can also perform services on Baremetal Agent, such as DHCP configuration and starting and stopping services, through Cisco UCS Director. A single Cisco UCS Director node can support multiple Baremetal Agent applications.

Minimum System Requirements

For proper installation and operation of Baremetal Agent, your environment must meet the minimum system requirements.

Minimum Requirements for VMware vSphere

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

Minimum Requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V

Name Requirements

Hyper-V

Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012 with one of the following:

  • 2.0

  • 3.1

Minimum reservation in Hyper-V

Minimum number of CPUs—2

Memory—3 GB

Hard disk—40 GB

Guidelines and Limitations

Before you install Baremetal Agent, take note of the following guidelines and limitations.

Baremetal Agent Connections

Each Baremetal Agent application can connect to only one Cisco UCS Director node.

Network Availability

After installation and configuration, your environment must have the following network availability:

  • Baremetal Agent must be able to reach Cisco UCS Director over the network.

  • Cisco UCS Director must be able to reach Baremetal Agent over the network.

  • The baremetal servers (blade or rack) must be able to reach the DHCP network of the Baremetal Agent during the initial stage of operating system installation over PXE.

DHCP Configuration

If you use DHCP, locate a DHCP server in the same PXE VLAN as Baremetal Agent. Then configure that DHCP server with the IP address range required by your DHCP server.

VLAN Configuration

When setting up the network configuration, the most common configuration uses one PXE VLAN and one Management VLAN (separate VLANs). However, Baremetal Agent supports one VLAN for both, if you prefer. For more information about the network configuration options, see Configuring Cisco UCS Director Baremetal Agent.

Configure the VLANs end-to-end between Cisco UCS, Cisco UCS Director, and Baremetal Agent. However, when you configure Baremetal Agent, do not assume that routing occurs between the PXE_VLAN Layer 2 network and the Management VLAN network.

If you configure Baremetal 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 assigns this IP address.

If you configure Baremetal Agent with two VLANs, set up two IP address attributes:

  • An IP address for Baremetal Agent in the PXE VLAN

  • A second IP address for Baremetal Agent in the Management VLAN

TFTP Server

With Baremetal Agent, use the Cisco UCS Director TFTP server to ensure that configurations such as dynamic variables function properly.

When you add a Baremetal Agent account, Baremetal Agent configures the TFTP server when services are started.

Upgrade of Baremetal Agent

For detailed information on upgrading Baremetal Agent, see the Cisco UCS Director Upgrade Guide.