When installing servers using the cloning function, first collect a cloning image from a source server. Collected cloning images can later be used for the deployment of other servers.
A cloning image can be collected only from a managed server on which an agent has been registered.
For details on registering agents, refer to "8.2 Installing Software and Registering Agents on VM Hosts".
A cloning image can be collected from a managed server that satisfies all of the following conditions:
The status is either "normal" or "warning"
Has been placed into maintenance mode
Cloning images cannot be collected from VM hosts or VM guests.
Preparations
Install the desired operating system and necessary applications on the managed server from which a cloning image will be collected.
Additionally, apply any required patches and other necessary settings.
Make sure that the source server operates properly after those steps.
If the managed server has the following configuration, configure the target disk of image operations before collecting cloning images.
Local boot with a SAN data environment
For the configuration procedure, refer to "9.1.13 Changing Target Disks of Image Operations" in the "User's Guide VE".
When the configurations of managed servers are as below, execute the following commands before collecting cloning images.
When using the ext4 file system of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, and one of the following conditions is met
In a SAN boot environment using HBA address rename
When using a rack mount or tower server and the server is registered with "Disable" of "Association with server management software (ServerView)" is selected
[Windows Manager]
>Installation_folder\SVROR\Manager\bin\rcxadm server set -name physical server -attr bootagt=winpe <RETURN> |
[Linux Manager]
#/opt/FJSVrcvmr/bin/rcxadm server set -name physical server -attr bootagt=winpe <RETURN> |
In a SAN boot environment using HBA address rename, and the following model
PRIMERGY BX960 S1
[Windows Manager]
>Installation_folder\SVROR\Manager\bin\rcxadm server set -name physical server -attr bootagt=winpe <RETURN> |
[Linux Manager]
#/opt/FJSVrcvmr/bin/rcxadm server set -name physical server -attr bootagt=winpe <RETURN> |
Check whether the DHCP client is enabled on the managed server to collect the cloning image from.
Cloning images with the same name can be saved up until the maximum number of image versions.
When collecting a new cloning image when the maximum number of image versions has already been reached, select the cloning image to delete.
The maximum number of image versions is three by default.
This setting can be changed by following the instructions given in "6.4 Changing the Maximum Number of Cloning Image Versions (Physical Servers)".
When deploying cloning images, the destination server temporarily starts up with its hostname set to either the physical server name or the source server's hostname.
If the same server names are detected on the same network, a network duplication error will occur.
Some programs may experience problems when started with a different hostname. If such programs have been installed, configure their services not to start automatically. This has to be configured before collecting the cloning image.
Some programs may experience problems when the same server name exists. If such programs have been installed, configure their services not to start automatically. This has to be configured before collecting cloning images.
When the target of operation is a PRIMEQUEST server, confirm that the boot option settings on the target server and the boot option set in BIOS are configured for Legacy boot.
When the settings of one of the servers are UEFI, configure the settings after changing to Legacy boot.
For details on how to change boot options, refer to "7.1.10 Changing Boot Options".
When using local disks as system disks, and iSCSI storage as data disks, refer to the advisory notes described in "Table: Supported Storage Configurations" in "8.1.1 Storage Configuration" in the "Design Guide VE".
[Windows]
Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP.
A volume license is required for cloning. The volume license must be entered during the installation of Resource Orchestrator Agent.
Refer to "2.2.1.2 Collecting and Checking Required Information" and "2.2.2 Installation [Windows] [Hyper-V]" in the "Setup Guide CE" for details.
If no volume license is entered during the agent installation, or if this information is changed after installation, edit the following license configuration file on the source server. Note that the structure and location of this file depend on the version of Windows that is being used.
For Windows Server 2003
Installation_folder\Agent\scw\SeparateSetting\sysprep\sysprep.inf
Edit the following line to enter a valid product ID.
ProductID=Windows product key (*) |
* Note: 5-digit values separated by hyphens
Example
ProductID=11111-22222-33333-44444-55555 |
Note
If there is a mistake in the product ID value or format, an error occurs when the collected cloning image is deployed. Make sure to enter a valid product ID when editing the definition file.
For Windows Server 2008 or later
Installation_folder\Agent\scw\SeparateSetting\ipadj\activation.dat
In the [ActivationInfo] section, set the following parameters using a "parameter=value" syntax.
Refer to the following table for details on each parameter.
Format | Parameters | Value |
|---|---|---|
KMS | .cmd.remotescript.1.params.kmscheck (Mandatory) | KMS host search type. Select one of the following:
When "MANUAL" is selected, make sure to set .cmd.remotescript.1.params.kmsname. |
.cmd.remotescript.1.params.kmsname | The host name (FQDN), computer name, or IP address of the KMS host. | |
.cmd.remotescript.1.params.kmsport | KMS host port number. The default is 1688. | |
MAK | .cmd.remotescript.1.params.makkey (Mandatory) | MAK key. |
Common | .cmd.remotescript.1.params.ieproxy | Host name (FQDN) and the port number of the proxy server. The host name and port number are separated by a colon (":"). |
.cmd.remotescript.1.params.password | Administrator password. | |
encrypted | The encryption status of the Administrator password. |
Example
With KMS (Automatic Search)
[ActivationInfo] |
With KMS (Manual Settings)
[ActivationInfo] |
With MAK
[ActivationInfo] |
If the Administrator password has been changed, execute the following command. The password specified in the .cmd.remotescript.1.params.password parameter of the definition file is changed to the encrypted string, and the line "encrypted=yes" is added to indicate that the password is encrypted.
For details, refer to "5.8 rcxadm deployctl" in the "Reference Guide (Command/XML) CE".
>"Installation_folder\Agent\bin\rcxadm" deployctl passwd -encrypt <RETURN> |
With MAK (Already Encrypted Password)
[ActivationInfo] |
Collecting Cloning Images
Use the following procedure to collect cloning images:
Place the target server into maintenance mode.
In the ROR console server resource tree, right-click the desired server (or its physical OS), and select [Maintenance Mode]-[Set] from the popup menu.
The [Set Maintenance Mode] dialog is displayed.
Click the [OK] button.
The target server is placed into maintenance mode.
Stop all operations running on the source server.
When a cloning image is collected, the source server is automatically restarted. Therefore, all operations running on the source server should be stopped before collecting the image.
Cancel the settings in the following cases:
NIC redundancy has been configured for admin LANs and public LANs (*)
Tagged VLANs have been configured on NICs
* Note: However, there is no need to cancel public LAN redundancy settings made via the network parameter auto-configuration function.
The following settings are disabled during cloning image collection, which may result in services failing to start on server startup. To avoid this, automatic startup should be disabled for any service that depends on the following settings.
Hostname
IP address and subnet mask for the admin LAN
Default gateway for the admin LAN
Note
When using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, it is necessary to configure the managed server so that only the NIC used for the admin LAN is active when the server is started. For details on how to modify the configuration, refer to the operating system manual. If this procedure is not performed, startup of network interfaces will take time, and errors may occur during the process.
Collect a cloning image.
In the ROR console server resource tree, right-click the physical OS of the source server and select [Cloning]-[Collect] from the popup menu.
The [Collect a Cloning Image] dialog is displayed.
Perform the following settings:
Enter a name to identify the collected cloning image.
New
When creating a new cloning image, select [New] and enter a new cloning image name.
For a cloning image name, enter a character string beginning with an alphabetic character and containing up to 32 alphanumeric characters and underscores ("_").
Update
When updating an existing cloning image, select [Update] and select a cloning image from the list.
Cloning images with the same name can be saved up until the maximum number of image versions.
If the selected cloning image has already reached this limit, it is necessary to delete one of its existing versions in order to create a new cloning image. This can be done directly in this dialog by selecting the version to be deleted from the displayed list.
The selected version will be automatically deleted when collection of the new cloning image completes.
The maximum number of image versions is three by default.
This setting can be changed by following the instructions given in "6.4 Changing the Maximum Number of Cloning Image Versions (Physical Servers)".
Enter a comment that identifies the cloning image.
Up to 128 characters other than percent signs ("%"), back slashes ("\"), double quotes ("), and line feed characters can be specified.
If [Update] was selected for the [Cloning Image Name] option, the comment of the most recent image version is displayed.
If no comment is specified, a hyphen ("-") will be displayed in the ROR console.
It is recommended to enter comments with information such as hardware configuration (server model, disk size, and number of network interfaces), software configuration (names of installed software and applied patches), and the status of network parameter auto-configuration function.
Enable this option to automatically release the source server from maintenance mode after image collection and maintenance work.
If this option disabled, maintenance mode should be released manually after collecting the cloning image.
Click the [OK] button.
The process of collecting the cloning image starts.
The process status can be checked in the Recent Operations area of the ROR console.
When the [Cancel] button is clicked in the Recent Operations area, the confirmation dialog to quit the process is displayed.
Restart applications on the source server.
Restore the settings of any service whose startup settings were changed in step 2 and start these services.
Restore the settings for the following cases:
NIC redundancy for admin LANs and public LANs has been released
The settings of tagged VLANs for NICs have been released
Check that applications are running properly on the source server.
Release the source server from maintenance mode.
This step is not required if the [Release Maintenance Mode after collection] checkbox was enabled in the [Collect a Cloning Image] dialog.
In the ROR console server resource tree, right-click the source server (or its physical OS) and select [Maintenance Mode]-[Release] from the popup menu.
The [Release Maintenance Mode] dialog is displayed.
Click the [OK] button.
The target server is released from maintenance mode.
While a cloning image is being collected, no other operations can be performed on that image or other versions of that image (images sharing the same image name).
