Install Guide

NOTE: After preparing the base virtual machine, in case the virtual machine is restarted, the

puppet verification file will need to be deleted from system. This file can be found in Windows

at C:\ProgramData\puppet_verification_run.txt or in Linux at /var/lib/

puppet_verification_run.txt.

NOTE: Ensure that the VM template is not created using the Microsoft System Preparation Tool

(sysprep) to avoid any failure during unattended operating system installation.

Preparing a vCenter Image for Cloning

The following topic covers the steps that you must follow to prepare a vCenter guest operating system to

clone and create templates in vCenter using ASM. After you have prepared the image, you can select the

template to quickly deploy the VMware template on target clusters in your infrastructure.

Pre-Requisites

Before you begin creating the image, ensure that you have:

• A vCenter system with a guest operating system — Microsoft Windows

• Internet access to download ruby gems from https://rubygems.org

• Knowledge of Windows Task Scheduler

• Access to the ASM Virtual appliance using CIFS or NFS

• Network access from the targeted cluster to ASM appliance

Customizing the vCenter Windows Template

NOTE: Ensure that you have met the pre-requisites before you begin customizing the template.

1. Install the VMware tools on the guest operating system.

2. Install the puppet agent and ensure that you configure the puppet agent to run at startup.

• You can install the puppet agent by accessing the agent on the ASM appliance using the CIFS

connection on the guest operating system or at the following path in the local system \\dellasm

\razor .

• Move the puppet agent directory to a default location on the system with the guest operating

system.

NOTE: It is recommended that you install the puppet agent version 3.6.2.

3. Run the agent 3.2.1 msi file on the system with the guest operating system. Perform this step using

an administrator access.

4. Ensure that the ASM appliance and virtual machine time are synchronized using the Network Time

Protocol (NTP).

5. Ensure that DNS is configured for dellasm to resolve. Creating an entry in DNS with forward and

lookup pointers enables you to pull and resource your ASM appliance instance.

6. Ensure that the file on the system with the guest operating puppet.conf system is updated to include

dellasm as the server for each of the entries.

7. Open the puppet.conf file in a text editor with administrator privileges and include the following:

[main]

server=dellasm

[master]