HP Insight Control Server Provisioning 7.3 Update 1 Administrator Guide

Provisioning servers
Server are provisioned by running OS Build Plans on them. A Build Plan running on a server is
called a job.
For information on OS Build plans see “Using OS Build Plans” (page 35) and the OS Build Plans
section of the online help.
Adding servers to a device group
Device Groups are user defined groups of servers used for organizing servers in ways that are
meaningful to you and acting on them together. You can run a Build Plan against a device group
or assign custom attributes to the group which get inherited by the servers in that group. A server
can be in multiple device groups at the same time. Once a server is added to a group, it will
remain in that group until it is removed from the group or deleted from the appliance.
You can add servers to a device group from either the Servers screen or the Device Groups screen.
See the online help for details.
Deleting servers
Deleting a server means removing all records of the server from the Insight Control server
provisioning database. It does not shut down or uninstall the server. See the online help topic
Delete servers for more information.
If you wish to clear the disk of a server, see “Erasing servers” (page 34).
Once a server has been deleted, it can be rediscovered as described in “Adding servers” (page 30).
Insight Control server provisioning will treat the server as brand new and will have no historical
information about it.
Erasing servers
Erasing a server means returning a server to its bare metal state and placing it in maintenance
mode. It is accomplished with the ProLiant HW – Erase Server OS Build Plan.
The ProLiant HW – Erase Server Build Plan will:
• erase all the disks on a server
• reset any HP Smart Array controllers, removing all logical volumes
• reset the server’s BIOS, including the date and time, to factory defaults
The erased server will remain as a discovered server in the master pane of the Servers screen.
CAUTION: Running the ProLiant HW – Erase Server causes data to be lost on the target servers.
If you wish to just remove a server from the list of servers discovered by Insight Control server
provisioning, see “Deleting servers” (page 34).
Virtual connect
Virtual connect provides the ability for the user to virtualize things like a server’s UUID and MAC
addresses. Although powerful, this feature must be used properly since these traits are used to
uniquely identify systems. Changing a server’s UUID or MAC address while it is registered with
the appliance will generally cause the appliance to see that server as a new device and result in
the failure of Build Plans run against that server.
To reduce the risk of virtual connect complications, be sure to follow these guidelines:
• Virtual connect profiles should be applied to servers before they are added to the appliance,
and
• If a virtual connect profile is changed or moved the server should be deleted in the appliance
before the profile change/move and added back afterwards.
34 Managing and provisioning servers