Dell PowerEdge C8000 - Manual (Page 350)

350 Troubleshooting
Setting Up and Configuring Stateless Boot Using
Dell Customized VMware ESXi ISO Image
NOTE: The Dell customized VMware ESXi ISO image is available at
dell.com/support.
NOTE: In order to benefit from the unique capabilities and features of vSphere 5, it
is recommended that you migrate existing ESX/ESXi deployments to ESXi 5.5 and
upgrade deployments of vSphere 4.x or older to vSphere 5.
VMware Auto Deploy
VMware Auto Deploy is a feature introduced from vSphere 5.0 which allows
rapid deployment and configuration of a large number of ESXi hosts without
having the image installed on each and every sled or server. Using Autodeploy,
you can specify the image to deploy and the hosts to provision with the
image. Optionally, you can specify host profiles to apply to the hosts, and a
vCenter Server folder or cluster for each host. When a physical host set up for
Auto Deploy is turned on, Auto Deploy uses a PXE boot infrastructure in
conjunction with vSphere host profiles to provision and customize that host.
Auto Deploy uses PXE to network boot sleds or servers and dynamically load
and configure an ESXi image directly into the host's memory. When a sled or
server boots for the first time, the Auto Deploy server will identify the new
sled or server, assign an appropriate ESXi image profile and host profile, and
place the sled or server into the proper vCenter folder or cluster.
Dell Customization of VMware ESXi
The Dell customized VMware ESXi ISO image includes new or updated
VMware IOVP certified drivers and specific third party CIM (Common
Information Module) providers relevant for Dell hardware and supported
peripherals. In addition to the drivers and CIM providers, Dell’s technical
support information is updated via OEM customization process.
NOTE: Currently, the Dell customized VMware ESXi Embedded ISO images for ESXi
4.x, ESXi 5.0, ESXi 5.1, and ESXi 5.5 do not include Dell OpenManage Server
Administrator. To know more about Dell Customization of ESXi, refer to
dell.com/support.