Summary
Auto Deploy GUI is a front end interface to the Auto Deploy/Stateless infrastructure.
Features
The Auto Deploy GUI is a vSphere plug-in for the VMware vSphere Auto Deploy component. The GUI plug-in allows a user to easily manage the setup and deployment requirements in a stateless environment managed by Auto Deploy. Some of the features provided through the GUI include the ability to add/remove Depots, list/create/modify Image Profiles, list VIB details, create/modify rules to map hosts to Image Profiles, check compliance of hosts against these rules and re-mediate hosts.
System Requirements
- Verify that you have the vSphere Client 5.0 or 5.1 installed.
- Verify that you are a member of the Administrators group on the system.
- Verify that the host machine has Windows Installer 3.0 or later.
- Verify that the system has an Internet connection.
- The Autodeploy GUI Plugin requires the Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1 Framework. The .NET 3.5 SP1 installation might require Internet connectivity to download more files.
- Verify that you have at least one working vSphere Auto Deploy Server
Note : vSphere Auto Deploy is not necessary (but recommended) to use the image builder feature only
Instructions
Procedure
- Download the Auto Deploy GUI Plugin zip file, extract it and double-click the AutodeployGUI5xTP_build number.exe file.
- Follow the prompts in the wizard to complete the installation.
For more details on how to use Auto Deploy GUI please download and use the following guide. The guide is in the download itself, but you can also view it here:
VMwareAutoDeployGUIPracticalGuide.pdf
The scope of this document is to demonstrate how to configure and use the Auto Deploy
GUI to manage stateless ESXi environments.
Video
Change Log
Engineers
 | Massimiliano DaneriWorks in the Center of Excellence group. |
So far this is a great tool for people who want to build their images and create deploy rules. As for the answer template section, I have had no success. Right now I haven’t had to create anything over on that screen, so I am just not worrying with it right now.
I’ve got some people that will take up learning Auto Deploy because of this GUI. Thanks guys.
I wondering if there are character that are not allowed in Cluster name, If I move the server in a different folder I can see it, but If it’s in one of the esxi cluster, the audeploy Gui is empty. Ex of cluster name ” Cluster D1″
I create an answer template, per the PDF doc, and only get the General section to put in management IP address and pool size. When I finish that, I go back to the hosts tab, and get “Index was outside bounds of the array”
After acknowledging message, nothing shows up for hosts.
Is there any way to clear and/or remove entries from the host “cache” when hosts are not in vcenter? I keep encountering situations where hosts are cached improperly, as visible at the autodeploy url https://a.b.c.d:6501/vmw/rbd/host/, but have been unable to find any way to clear this cache aside from removing hosts from vcenter.
In general, the “caching “in autodeploy is quite troubling, as it seems to be a lesson in cache coherency failure. A “cache” that requires manual user driven updates is not a cache at all, it’s a stale copy of data. Please let me know if there is some way to clear this “cache” that I’m simply missing, or if my understanding of this caching system is simply wrong.
Thanks!
I notice this doesn’t use the powershell scripts. Is there a WSDL for AutoDeploy? If so, where would I find it?
Disregard my previous post, I am an idiot!!! Clearly there is another version as I just discovered!
Max, Having an odd issue that when I install the plugin everything seems to work fine but the plug-in never appears in my vi-client??? Running Auto Deploy version 5.1.4058 and the plugin version I am installing is 5.0.3844 is there a newer version of the plugin that I should be using?
What also existed then was the electronic ignition system. but it was inside a plain box whose contents most people do not know. Electronic ignition gave off better spars and was almost maintenance free. But such was only found in higher end cars and were generally not present in most compact cars.*
My own webpage
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21 March 2013 build 2051
VMware Autodeploy Gui vSphere plugin 5.1 Release Build 3851.
Bug Fix:
Multi rule of same type ,for example with previous version was not possible to create a multiple ip range rule set, now it’s fixed
fix an issue with MAC address inside the RuleSet form
Fling works great !. But when i want to create a rule that applies to multiple host, it does not recognise the seperate hostnames. I can still add them with Powercli, but am unable to repeat with the fling how Powercli adds this.
I’ll check
yes it’s true, I’m fixing this bug just now
thanks Edwin
Hi guys, great tool. Im having an issue unfortunately that the plugin isn’t connecting to my Autodeploy server (a vCA) any longer. It has worked in the past and I’ve been able to build and deploy templates however I currently cannot make changes using the GUI (getting a “No Autodeploy instance available message). The Autodeploy service on the vCA is defiantly functioning though, and autodeploys hosts without issue.
TIA.
I need more info can u send me your log c:\users\\appdata\vmware\autodeploygui\log
my email is mdaneri
Hi Max,
Thanks for the reply, however I found that after installing the plugin on another VIC instance it worked without issue.
One full re install of the VIC and all plugins on the affected machine fixed the problem.
There is a bug on build 3844, this bug appear when you try to create or edit a rule that use a mac address.
This bug is fixed with build 3846, available soon on this page
I apologize for any possible inconvenience
Max
Hi, I tried the plugin in 5.1 but it makes the entire client crash after a couple seconds. Is this a known issue or would you require some logs?
Thanks!
Hi, an update on this, the crash was caused because I was using 5.1 vSphere and plugin, but 5.0 Autodeploy. Upgrading autodeploy server to 5.1 fixed it.
Still, it would be great for the plugin not to crash on this, just log the error..
Thanks!
When can we expect an update?
it’s out now
Hi Max,
are you planning a new version of autodeploy GUI for vSphere 5.1?
Could you please give us a release date?
Thanks a lot.
Charles
Soon will be available
Any chance we can get a release date or at least a Q1, 2, 3??
Will this work on vCenter 5.1 ?
Not this version
Is there a new version coming, this fling was very useful for our deployment especially now with stateful install, we will roll this for our entire environment.
Upgraded vcenter server version to 5.0.0 build-804277 and when I attempt to launch vpxclient crashes….uninstall auto-deploy GUI and all is well. Re-install and the crashes resume. Is there going to be a GUI version to run on these updated vcenter versions?
Hi,
It might be an idea to add to the requirements list that your actual vCenter server must have an Auto Deploy Server installed. It might seem obvious but it will not be for everyone.
Greetings,
Rob
Hi Max,
What an awesome tool keep up the good work!
I must admit I’m a bit disappointed this hasn’t been integrated in the vSphere 5.1 release.
This tool deserves to be a part of the general vSphere release.
I really hope you are ready to release the 5.1 version soon and when vSphere 6.0 will hit the streets this tool is integrated.
When will the next version of the AutoDeployGUI be online? We need such things like MAC-Adress-Filter, Nexus, vDS…
Heiko
Hi, Firstly great tool!
I notice the PDF for the GUI shows setting “optional” parameters under the Answer Template section, specifically NFS and vMotion kernel interfaces.
How do you activate this? The default answer template only contains the first management interface and the hostname. How do you add additional parameters?
Ok – I can see my setting the host file parameter to “prompt” that I get an entry in the wizard.
However, even when I have a single entry for the management IP, I get a “index out of range” fault.
Any idea what would be causing this? I’ve tried a range of pool sizes which I believe drives the index number but no luck.
I think I’ve found my main problem – This doesn’t support hosts using Nexus 1000V… haven’t tried the VMWare DVS. I had hoped that it would work with any variable in the host profile that was set to prompt – but apparently not ones related to the DVS. I can get this work with standard vSwitches fine.
Hi Richard,
sorry for this my late answer, yes nexus isn’t supported for the simple reason that I hadn’t any nexus on my environment :)
Maybe on 5.1
Any idea timeframe for having a GUI version that runs with vCenter Server/Client 5.1? Right now this plugin version will not load on the 5.1 build. thanks!
no the plugin isn’t able to load on 5.1
Great tool and it worked perfectly for me until I upgraded to vSphere 5.1. I could really use a version compatible with vSphere 5.1.
Hi,
We’re trying to use this plugin to manage our auto deploy setup, after installing the plugin, the vsphere client freeze/crash everytime. The following errors are shown in %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\VMware\Autodeploy\log\autodeploy.log
21 ERROR autodeploy.Globals – VI
21 ERROR autodeploy.Globals – A specified parameter was not correct. extension.extendedProductInfo.companyUrl
21 ERROR autodeploy.Globals – at VirtualInfrastructure.Soap.SoapServiceWrapper.DoInvokeSync(ManagedObject mo, MethodName methodName, Object[] parameters, Int32 timeoutSecs)
at VirtualInfrastructure.Soap.SoapTransport.VirtualInfrastructure.Transport.InvokeMethod(ManagedObject mo, MethodName methodName, Object[] pars)
at VirtualInfrastructure.ManagedObject.InvokeMethod(MethodName methodName, Object[] pars)
at Vmomi.ExtensionManager.UpdateExtension(Extension extension)
at VMware.net.RBDAutomation.RbdClient.setExtension()
at VMware.net.RBDAutomation.RbdClient..ctor(VIAutomation vimClient, String savePath)
at VMware.net.RBDAutomation.RbdClientManager.GetRbdClient(VIAutomation vimClient, String path)
at autodeploy.VCenter..ctor(Int32 _index, VIApp VIApplication, ServerInfo srv, pvMainPXE _pvMain)
Is this something that was ever experienced before? Tried to install the plugin on a Windows 2008 R2 sever and Windows Vista (32 Bits).
Thanks!
try to restart the waiter service
hello,
can anybody give some hints about Answer Template usage. i have set my Host Profile to prompt for a ESXi hostname. and i have set up management ip range in answer template to provide hostnames to my hosts. but after joining vCenter all my hosts report “localhost” as their hostnames. i need to select “Update Answer File” from Host Profile screen (in vSphere Client) and manually type in correct hostname. then after next reboot host gets correct hostname. if i remove host from vCenter inventory and reboot it, next time it gets “localhost” again (probably because answer file gets deleted then). why my answer template does not provide hostnames when ESXi is joining vCenter and new answer file is created? my host are getting their IP-addresses from the range specified in answer template.
regards,
kipz
My only wish would be to have an option to export driver from an existing deploy image. The case is, that I have an older ESXi version from HP without Update1 and it includes some specific drivers that I would love to export and use with another image.
Any ideas?
Hi,
One issue i faced while using the autodeployGUI was that i always got a licensing related issue which prevented the host from joining the cluster automatically.
I had to manually add the host the first time after which it would work fine the subsequent boots.
Am i missing something or is this a known issue… I know there is a bulk licensing option using powercli, but was not sure how to get it done using the autodeployGUI.
Regards,
John
Hi,
First of all thank you for this very good tool. Makes things a lot more easier for someone not too familiar with PowerCLI.
I had a question with regards to Auto-deploy in a production environment. For redundancy of the auto-deploy service, I am looking into having 2 auto-deploy servers. Auto-deploy is installed on a seperate VM, that also has tftp and dhcp service running. The VC is on a different VM. Can i have 2 auto-deploy servers talking to the same VC ? Also will this tool work in this kind of a scenario when i deploy a 2nd Autodeploy server.
As far as my understanding goes… The autodeployGUI basically talks to the VC to get info rather than push info. It gets the host profiles and answer file info from VC but doesnt actually change anything on the VC ?
Any thoughts on the same would be highly appreciated.
Regards,
John
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to create such a handy plugin.
Just wanted to find out how the progress of the next version is going?
particularly interested in VDS improvements and the ability to add multiple MAC addresses to a single rule
thanks, and keep up the awesome work! – This should be integrated into VCSA, makes it so easy!
Thanks for this tool.
but i got issues too.
running on Server 2008 R2, the tool seems to work fine for me, from installation up to deploy rule creation. but when i tried to run my first-in-infrastructure-host boot, deploy rule seems not responding. DHCP, gPXE and TFTP worked fine, it’s just not able to load the Image file. encountered this error:
“http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.install.doc_50%2FGUID-54D5B7E5-2C3E-4141-BDB8-75720E7875DB.html”
what i noticed is that when i tried to invoke PowerCli, Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1 could not be loaded due to executionpolicy level. for this, i did set the policy to RemoteSigned. but unfortunately, still the Host could not load the image.
Is there any other factors to look into?
looking forward for a response.
Thank you very much.
hahahah!! i am sorry, twas my fault… i forgot to apply/edit the “Answer Template” tab… Thanks.. cheers to the builder!!
Hi,
I have tried to use this plug-in and when I nagivate to the VMware Auto Deploy Solution page it comes up with the 6 tabs but just says “loading…” in the main window. It will sit on “loading..” forever. I cannot select any of the tabs (i.e. SW Depot, Image Profile, Deploy Rule, Hosts, Answer Template, Auto Deploy Server). I can navigate back to other vCenter screens but I never get anything else on this screen. I installed the plug-in on 2 different instances of the vSphere client and I see the same results in each case. Anyone else seen this or have any ideas?
Yes, I get the same thing. I tried installing a couple of times as well still same result, just sits there and says “Loading”. I am using Windows 7 x64 client with ESXi 5.U1 and vCenter 5.1 installed. Did you get it to work?
As of 4/25/2012 still have not got it working or received any suggestions.
If you have vcenter in Linked Mode, try breaking that via Start menu/Programs/VMware/vCenter Server Linked Mode Config. Kicked into life for me after I’d done that.
Thanks for the suggestion. Breaking linked mode seems to resolve the problem. I then re-enabled linked-mode and the problem returned so it definitely seems to be a linked-mode issue.
I do not use linked mode, but I still get the endless “loading” message. The log just says
[2012-09-03 14:34:48] ClientUIThread INFO autodeploy.Globals – *******************************************************
[2012-09-03 14:34:48] ClientUIThread INFO autodeploy.Globals – **** autodeploy, Version=5.0.3414.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null
[2012-09-03 14:34:48] ClientUIThread INFO autodeploy.Globals – **** Version 5.0 Build 3414 Revision 0
[2012-09-03 14:34:48] ClientUIThread INFO autodeploy.Globals – *******************************************************
[2012-09-03 14:34:51] 16 INFO autodeploy.Globals – Loading vCenter data
Any hints?
I have the same problem. I am using the same setup..
And I get the same problem from 2008R2
Have you installed VMware Auto Deploy server on that vCenter server? Without that server component the plug in doesn’t do anything.
Its unclear if this will work with the vcenter appliance auto deploy feature. if so how is it integrated?
there are no problems to use vCenter appliance.
Integrated?, please can you be more precise ?
I was wondering if you have plans to bring support for vDistributed Switch VMkernel ports to the Answer Templates? It picks up on VMkernel ports on standard switches, but not vDS.
Thanks :-)
Will be implemented on next version, Nexus support will be implemented too :)
Hi,
we’re using a proxy to reach internet from our lab, when we have the proxy activated in IE the VMware depot is added to the software deopt tab, but when we try to add the HA depot we get 503 error from our Proxy. We have configured exclusions but some how auto deploy gui doesn’t seams to read that list at all…
When we run the same HA url in a webbrowser it works fine, so something is going south…
Hi Daniel try to add it manually using vcenter IP address instead of use menu option
Hello,
We try Your AutoDeploy GUI with vCenter Server Appliance 5.0 all works but ESXi is deployed in server memory, How we can deply on Local Storage HDD or USB?? where we can select install location for esxi?
Thanks for Your response
sorry you cannot with version 5.0, autodeploy is stateless only, try with PXE manager for stateful http://labs.vmware.com/flings/pxemanager
One item I noticed when using the tool today – no option to add mutiple comma separated MAC addresses. In our environment we’re using MAC address patterns to determine which server grabs which profile (mainly because it’s easy to assign a group of MAC addresses to servers in a UCS environment)
Using the command line this isn’t too big of an issue, we just have to enter each MAC in the range separated by commas. The GUI tool on the other hand only allows one MAC address. (I’m also seeing an internal error when trying to use it at all.)
Other than that one issue everything else seems to work pretty well.
Also, if you have some inside connections with some of the other Auto Deploy guys, maybe you can see if they will allow the use of a MAC address range the same way that is available with the IP address range. :)
Thanks for the great tool!
-Tommy
yes it’s true you cannot assign more than a single mac address, I’ll fix it on next version, I agree will be useful to have a range address field , I’ll try to implement it :)
Any known issues with installing the plug-in on a Windows 7 x64 host? On my lab system it installs fine but when I try to run vpxclient Windows thinks it crashed and wants to close it.
Happens here when I connect to vCenter Server Appliance.
strange should works without any problem with a vCenter Server Appliance.
please try to restart autodeploy daemon on VSA
Hi Rick,
please I need more details, could you send me the logs ( %USERPROFILES%\appdata\VMware\Autodeploy\log )
was it a fresh install or an upgrade from a beta version?
Thanks! Great thing!
But some issues…
Have a lil bit tested it today – noticed that there is some inconsistance in tasks with powrcli. If I change rule through powercli(mark it as ruleset or change the name etc.) these changes do not reflect in GUI inteface, It is still with old settings.
And 2nd – If I download depot vie powercli, I can’t see it via GUI.
Yes you are right, Autodeploy server has been designed to be used with powershell, not with a gui, when on server an event happen (change rule, new image ,etc ) , no information return to client, (you get the same behaviour if you use 2 different powershell sessions)
, the only workaround is to click the refresh link, this force the client to reload all server information.
Max