Administrator Guide

4  ServerCloningwithServerConfigurationProfiles 
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Introduction 
TheheartofembeddedmanagementineveryDellPowerEdgeserver,theiDRACwithLifecycleControllerprovidesthe
abilitytogeneratea human‐readablesnapshotofserverconfigurationviaaServerConfigurationProfile.Thissinglefile
containsallBIOS,iDRAC,LifecycleController,Network,andStoragesettings.Aftercapturingthisfilecanbe
modified,as
needed,andthenappliedtootherservers,evendifferentservermodels.However,thisoperationrequiresattentionto
detailssuchasI/Oidentity,storageconfiguration,and othersettingsthatcouldcauseissuesifmisconfigured.
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AmongtheoperationalfeaturesoftheServerConfigurationProfileare“Clone”and“Replace”modesofProfileExport
anda“Preview”modeforProfileImport.Asthesenamessuggest,thesemethodscansavesignificanttimeinhighly
automatedITenvironmentswheremultipleserversaretobeconfigured,cloned,and,inthefuture,
re‐configuredfor
differentworkloads.Thiswh itepaperillustratesthepracticaluseofthesefeatures–showinghowtocloneorreplace
settingsfromadesignatedsourceor“golden”server,previewapplyingthesesettings,andfinally,importingthe
settingstoatargetserver.
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Normalprofileexport 
ServerConfigurationProfile (SCP) operationsareprovidedviatheRACADMcommandlineinterfaceandtheiDRAC’s
WS‐Manapplicationprogramminginterface(API);SCPexportsandimportscanbedirectedtoorfromlocalfilesystems
andnetworkshares (NFS/CIFS).TheSCP‐generatedprofileincludesallaspectsofthesystem,
suchasBIOS,NIC,RAID,
FC,iDRAC,andLifecycleControllersettings.Bydefault,an“ExportConfiguration”invocationresultsinaNormal
Export.Inatypicaluse‐caseforaNormalExportoperation,anadministratorwillexporttheSCP,creatinga
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“snapshot”ofallthecurrentsystemconfigurationsettingswithouthavingtoinvokemultiplecommands.Forexample,
theRAIDconfigurationonasourcesystemcouldincludemultipleVirtualDisksthathavebeensetup.Unlessitwasthe
expressintenttoreconfigurestorageonthetargetsystem,userswouldnotwantSCPsnapshots
takenonthesource
systemtodisruptthetargetsystemonanImportoperationbywipingouttheVirtualDisksonthetargetsystem.The
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“NormalMode”forExportkeepsthisinmind,andtheSCPgeneratedhas non-destructive settings andactionsthat
willnotcausedisruptiontoatargetsystemifthe“Nor malMode”SCPisimported. 
ThefollowingWinrmcommand,usingtheWS‐ManAPI,canbeusedtoexportanSCPinthe“Normal”mode: 
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winrm i ExportSystemConfiguration http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-
schema/2/root/dcim/DCIM_LCService?SystemCreationClassName=DCIM_ComputerSystem+CreationCla
ssName=DCIM_LCService+SystemName=DCIM:ComputerSystem+Name=DCIM:LCService -u:root -
p:calvin -r:https://192.168.0.10/wsman -SkipCNCheck -SkipCACheck -encoding:utf-8 -a:basic
@{IPAddress="192.168.100.50";ShareName="/nfs";ShareType="0";FileName="Export.xml"}
TheSCPcanbeexportedtoNFS(0)orCIFS(2)shares,asspecifiedbythe ShareType parameter. ShareName identifies
thenetworksharewheretheexportedfilespecifiedby
FileName shouldreside.InthecaseofCIFSshares,credentials
toaccesstheshareshouldalsobespecifiedbythe
UserName and Password parameters. 
ThefollowingRACADMcommandexportsa“Normal”modeSCPtoaCIFSshare: 
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racadm get -f file -t xml -u myuser -p mypass -l //192.168.100.50/share