Using Linux shell scripts to automatically create VMware ESX 3.5 hosts

On the SearchVMware section of TechTarget.com a new tip of mine is published.

In any VMware ESX environment, VMware ESX hosts within the same cluster must be configured the same way. If a host in a cluster is not properly configured, basic networkingoperations such as or VMotion will fail. Manually installing and configuring new hosts or reinstalling older hosts, however, can be cumbersome and prone to human error.

The best way to ensure that each ESX host has the same configuration is to perform a fully automated install of your ESX hosts. This article series gives step-by-step directions for scripting the installation of an ESX host. After a host has been created, there are just two steps left for an administrator to perform: selecting the name of the host and adding the host to the correct cluster after installation. When you script an installation in this way, you can deploy a VMware ESX 3.5 host in 10 minutes.

The basis of the script has been created by me, but later on Arnim van Lieshout has added some very good extra’s.

Read the full post here:  Using Linux shell scripts to automatically create VMware ESX 3.5 hosts
which shows you how to use the scripts, part 2 is “A deep dive into scripting VMware ESX host creation“  is a more in-depth view.