HP Insight Control for Linux 6.2 User Guide

9 Installing operating systems on managed systems
This chapter addresses the following topics:
• “Linux OS installation overview” (page 91)
• “Using installation configuration files for unattended installations” (page 92)
• “Prerequisites to OS installations on managed systems” (page 97)
• “Installing RHEL on managed systems” (page 99)
• “Installing SLES on managed systems” (page 101)
• “Installing VMware ESX and VMware ESXi operating systems” (page 101)
• “Installing another variant of Linux on managed systems” (page 105)
• “Generic procedure for installing an OS on one or more managed systems” (page 106)
9.1 Linux OS installation overview
The Insight Control for Linux installation tools enable you to install a Linux OS to one or more
target managed systems. The process for installing a Linux OS on one server is the same as the
process for ten servers or a hundred servers.
Linux OS installation tasks are launched from the following HP SIM menu:
Deploy→Operating System
IMPORTANT: Installing a Linux OS on a managed system erases data on the managed system.
Before you begin, be sure that you have captured or backed up any data you want to retain before
you begin. Preserving user data on volumes other than the principle target volume is not
guaranteed. Presume that data on primary and secondary volumes is erased.
Insight Control for Linux uses the task scheduling features of HP SIM so that you can run software
installation operations immediately or run the operation at a user-defined scheduled date and
time. See Chapter 4 (page 31) for information about understanding task results.
For DL100 Series servers, you can observe the installation through a serial console connection.
For more information, see Section 22.4 (page 202). For iLO based servers, you can observe the
installation through a remote console.
9.1.1 Interactive versus unattended installations
Insight Control for Linux allows you to install an OS interactively or unattended:
• An interactive installation method means that the Insight Control for Linux OS installation
tools reboot the selected target server or servers into the native installation application of
the OS, which requires step-by-step user interaction to provide responses to the OS installation
process.
• An unattended installation method reads RHEL Kickstart and SLES AutoYaST installation
files, which contain the responses to the OS installation process. This method requires no
user interaction.
Insight Control for Linux OS installation tools give you the option to launch the following types
installation sessions:
Table 9-1 Types of Installation Sessions
UnattendedInteractiveInstallation
Red Hat (Kickstart)Red Hat InteractiveRHEL
SLES (AutoYaST)SLES InteractiveSLES
Custom or Other (Unattended)Custom or Other InteractiveCustom or Other
9.1 Linux OS installation overview 91