Before you attempt to deploy an operating-system image, review the following considerations.
To determine the configuration status of the server, see the Configuration Status field on the Summary page for the managed server (see Viewing the details of a managed server).
For servers with XCC2 that have System Guard enabled and the action set to Prevent OS booting, ensure that System Guard is compliant on the device. If System Guard is not compliant, the devices are prevented from completing the boot process, which causes the OS deployment to fail. To provision these devices, manually respond to the System Guard boot prompt to allow the devices to boot normally.
Operating-system images in the XClarity Administrator repository might not be supported only on certain hardware platforms. Only OS-image profiles that are supported by the selected server are listed on the Deploy OS Images page. You can determine whether an operating system is compatible with a specific server from the Lenovo OS Interoperability Guide website.
For SLES 15 and 15 SP1, you must import both the installer image and the associated package image from the Server OS Support Center webpage. For SLES 15 SP2 or later, you need to import only the Full Installation Media image because the Unified Installer and Packages DVDs from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 and 15 SP1 are deprecated.
For VMware, use the latest Lenovo Custom Image for ESXi, which includes support for the latest adapters. For information about obtaining that image, see the VMware Support – Downloads webpage.
The SLES kISO image counts towards the maximum number of imported OS images.
For a list of supported base and custom operating systems, see Supported operating systems.
If you delete all kISO profiles, you must delete the base SLES operating system and then import the base operation system and kISO image again to deploy SLES 12 SP2 on a ThinkSystem server.
If you create a custom OS-profile based on a kISO profile, the predefined device drivers in the base operating system are not included. The device drivers that are included in the kISO are used instead. You can also add device drivers to the custom OS-profile (see Creating a custom OS-image profile).
For more information about limitations for specific operating systems, see Supported operating systems.
Ensure that XClarity Administrator can communicate with the target server (both the baseboard management controller and the servers’ data network) over the interface (Eth0 or Eth1) that was selected when you configured the XClarity Administrator network access.
To specify an interface to be used for operating-system deployment, see Configuring network access).
For more information about the operating-system deployment network and interfaces, see Network considerations.
If you are using DHCP to assign IP addresses dynamically, you must configure the MAC address.
Ready.(Note that some fields are not available for static IPv6 addresses.)
Hostname
The hostname must comply with the following rules:
The hostname of each managed server must be unique.
The hostname can contain strings (labels) that are separated by a period (.).
Each label can contain ASCII letters, digits, and dashes (-); however, the string cannot start or end with a dash and cannot contain all digits.
The first label can be 2 - 15 characters in length. Subsequent labels can be 2 – 63 characters in length.
The total length of the hostname must not exceed 255 characters.
MAC address of the port on the host where the operating system is to be installed.
The MAC address is set to AUTO by default. This setting automatically detects the Ethernet ports that can be configured and used for deployment. The first MAC address (port) that is detected is used by default. If connectivity is detected on a different MAC address, the XClarity Administrator host is automatically restarted to use the newly detected MAC address for deployment.
You can determine the status of the MAC address port that is used for OS deployment from the MAC address drop-down menu on the Network Settings dialog. If multiple ports are up or if all ports are down, AUTO is used by default.
Virtual network ports are not supported. Do not use one physical network port to simulate multiple virtual network ports.
When the server's network setting is set to AUTO, XClarity Administrator can automatically detect network ports in slots 1 – 16. At least one port in slots 1 – 16 must have a connection to XClarity Administrator.
If you want to use a network port in slot 17 or greater for the MAC address, you cannot use AUTO. Instead, you must set the server's network setting to the MAC address of the specific port that you want to use.
For ThinkServer servers, not all host MAC addresses are displayed. In most cases, MAC addresses for AnyFabric Ethernet adapters are listed on the Edit Network Settings dialog. MAC addresses for other Ethernet adapters (such as the Lan-On-Motherboard) are not listed. In cases where the MAC address for an adapter is not available, use the AUTO method for non-VLAN deployments.
If you choose to use VLANs, you can assign a VLAN ID to the host network adapter that is being configured.
For more information about the operating-system deployment network and interfaces, see Configuring network settings for managed servers and Network considerations.
UEFI boot onlybefore you deploy an operating system. The
Legacy-onlyand
UEFI first, then legacyboot options are not supported for operating-system deployment.
Each server must have a hardware RAID adapter that is installed and configured.
Only storage that is set up with hardware RAID is supported.
The software RAID that is typically present on the onboard Intel SATA storage adapter or storage that is set up as JBOD are not supported; however, if a hardware RAID adapter is not present, setting the SATA adapter to AHCI SATA mode enabled for operating-system deployment or setting unconfigured good disks to JBOD might work in some cases. For more information, see OS installer cannot find the disk drive on which you want to install.
This exception does not apply to M.2 drives.
If a managed device has both local drives (SATA, SAS, or SSD) that are not configured for hardware RAID and M.2 drives, you must disable the local drives if you want to use M.2 drives, or you must disable the M.2 drives if you want to use local drives. You can disable on-board storage controller devices and legacy and UEFI storage option ROMs using the using Configuration Patterns by selecting Disable local disk on the Local Storage tab of the wizard or by creating a Configuration Pattern from an existing server and then disabling the M.2 devices in the extended UEFI pattern.
IDE.
The NVMe storage that is connected to a server motherboard or HBA controller is not supported and must not be installed in the device; otherwise, OS deployment to non-NVMe storage will fail.
When deploying RHEL, multi ports that are connected to same LUN on the target storage is not supported.
When deploying Microsoft Windows to a server, attached drives must not have existing system partitions (see OS deployment fails due to existing system partitions on an attached disk drive).
For ThinkServer servers, ensure that the following requirements are met:
The boot settings on the server must include a Storage OpROM Policy that is set to UEFI Only. For more information, see OS installer cannot boot on a ThinkServer server.
If you are deploying ESXi and there are network adapters that are PXE bootable, disable PXE support on the network adapters before deploying the operating system. The deployment is completed, you can re-enable PXE support, if desired.
If you are deploying ESXi and there are bootable devices in the boot-order list other than the drive on which the operating system is to be installed, remove the bootable devices from the boot-order list before deploying the operating system. After deployment is complete, you can add the bootable device back to the list. Ensure that the installed drive is at the top of the list.
For more information about storage-location settings, see Choosing the storage location for managed servers.