VM Provisioning Using ISO Images

This chapter contains the following sections:

About Virtual Machine Provisioning Using ISO Images

In Cisco UCS Director you can provision new VMs using ISO images. Using ISO images provides more flexibility over the other methods in provisioning new VMs and installing guest operating systems.

If you provision new VMs using an ISO image, the VMs are provisioned with an ISO image that resides in a datastore. As a general convention, the datastores are exclusively used for storing ISO images, for better sharing across the environment, for centralized access, and for better file organization.

In Cisco UCS Director, you must identify and tag ISO hosting datastores, so that Cisco UCS Director can perform a deep inventory of the datastore and obtain ISO file information that resides in the datastore. Once you have a list of the ISO files, you must create ISO mapping policies to include one or more ISOs. Finally, the ISO mapping policy must be selected in the VDC computing policy to allow VM provisioning with ISO images.

In Cisco UCS Director, you can provision VMs using ISO images with the End User Portal based on the published Catalogs.

Cisco UCS Director supports collection of ISO images at any level in the datastore. The ISO images are visible when they are uploaded to any sub-folders.

Inventory containing ISO images in VSAN datastores are only supported when the ISO images are placed in any sub-folder under the root directory.


Note

Folders that begin with a dot (.) are excluded from the ISO image inventory.


Important

To mount a Windows 2016 or Windows 10 ISO image on a VM using the Provision new VM for ISO image mounting option, you have to perform the following additional steps:

  1. Create a blank VM template in the vCenter.

  2. Select this blank VM template in the catalog.

For information on these steps, see Creating a Template for VM Provisioning.

Viewing ISO Image Mapping Policy Reports

You can perform the following procedure to view collective information about ISO image inventory.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Policies > Virtual/Hypervisor Policies > Service Delivery.

Step 2

On the Service Delivery page, click Mark DataStores for ISO Inventory Collection.

Step 3

Click the row with the account for which you want view the associated ISO image mapping policies.

Step 4

Click View Details.

Marking Datastores for ISO

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Policies > Virtual/Hypervisor Policies > Service Delivery.

Step 2

On the Service Delivery page, click Mark DataStores for ISO Inventory Collection.

Step 3

Click Mark Datastores for ISO.

Step 4

On the Mark Datastores for ISO dialog screen, choose the cloud and the datastores that you want to mark.

Step 5

Check the Fetch in Account Level Inventory check box to perform ISO inventory collection for every regular account level inventory. If unchecked, ISO inventory collection is skipped during regular account level inventory collection, reducing the regular inventory collection time.

The Fetch in Account Level Inventory check box lets you trigger ISO inventory collection per account on demand.

Step 6

Click OK.

Collecting ISO Inventory

You can perform a deep inventory of the datastore to obtain ISO file information.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Policies > Virtual/Hypervisor Policies > Service Delivery.

Step 2

On the Service Delivery page, click Mark DataStores for ISO Inventory Collection.

Step 3

Click the row with the account for which you want to collect the ISO inventory.

Step 4

Click Collect ISO Inventory.

Step 5

On the Collect ISO Inventory screen, click OK.

Guest OS ISO Image Mapping

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Policies > Virtual/Hypervisor Policies > Service Delivery.

Step 2

On the Service Delivery page, click Guest OS ISO Image Mapping.

Step 3

Click Add.

Step 4

On the Guest OS ISO Image Mapping screen, complete the fields to add a guest OS image mapping policy.

Note

 

If you check the Allow End User to Select Guest OS and ISO Image check box, you can select the guest OS and ISO image source when you create a service request. If the box is left unchecked, you can only select the guest OS when you create a service request.

Step 5

Click Submit.

Assigning Guest OS ISO Image Mapping Policy to VDC

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Policies > Virtual/Hypervisor Policies > Virtual Data Centers.

Step 2

Click the row with the VDC to which you want the guest OS ISO mapping policy to be assigned.

Step 3

Click Edit.

Step 4

On the Edit VDC screen, choose the policy from the ISO Mapping Policy drop-down list.

Step 5

Click Save.

Creating Catalogs for ISO-Based VM Provisioning

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Policies > Catalogs.

Step 2

Click Add.

Step 3

On the Add Catalog screen, choose Standard from the Catalog Type drop-down list.

Step 4

Click Submit.

Step 5

In the Basic Information screen, check the Provision new VM for ISO mounting check box.

Step 6

Complete the remaining screens in the Add Catalog wizard and click Next.

Step 7

At the final wizard screen, review the summary information and click Submit.

Creating Service Requests for ISO-Based VM Provisioning

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Organizations > Service Requests.

Step 2

Click Create Request.

Step 3

On the Create Request screen, choose Standard from the Catalog Type drop-down list.

Step 4

Click Submit.

Step 5

On the Catalog Selection screen, choose the catalog that was published for ISO-based VM provisioning.

Step 6

Complete the remaining screens in the Create Service Request wizard, and click Next.

Step 7

At the final wizard screen, review the summary information and click Submit.

Creating OVF Deployment Policy

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Policies > Virtual/Hypervisor Policies > Service Delivery.

Step 2

On the Service Delivery page, click OVF Deployment Policy.

Step 3

Click Add.

Step 4

On the Add Policy screen, complete the following fields:

Name

Description

Account Name drop-down list

Choose the account name for which you want to create a OVF deployment policy.

Policy Name field

Enter a unique name for the policy.

Policy Description field

Enter a description for the policy.

OVF URL field

The OVF URL.

Fetch OVF Properties check box

Check the Fetch OVF Properties check box to fetch the OVF properties from the specified OVF URL.

OVF Version field

Display only. This field shows the OVF version.

Information in this field is displayed only when you check the Fetch OVF Properties check box.

Product URL

field

Display only. This field shows the product URL.

Information in this field is displayed only when you check the Fetch OVF Properties check box.

Step 5

Expand Configure OVF Properties and select a key entry and click Edit.

Step 6

On the Edit Configure OVF Properties Entry screen, complete the following fields:

Name

Description

Key field

Enter the name for the OVF property key as available in the OVF file.

Is it a Password Key? check box

Check this check box if the property key is a password key.

Is the password same as the password provided in the Task Inputs screen? check box

Check this check box, if the password is same as the password provided in the Task Inputs screen.

This field is displayed only when you check the Is it a Password Key? check box.

Value field

Enter a value for the OVF property key.

To apply configurations from the vDC policies, enter the value in the following format: <$(NETWORK.IPADDRESS), $(NETWORK.IPADDRESS)1, $(NETWORK.IPADDRESS)2, $(NETWORK.NETMASK), $(NETWORK.GATEWAY), $(NETWORK.ISDHCP), $(SYSTEM.DNSDOMAIN), $(SYSTEM.DNSSERVERS)>

Step 7

Click Submit.