kickstart example to deploy virtual machine from template

[JASON GODFREY]

hello i am trying to build a kickstart file that will accomplish the following:

install ESXi

set root password

set static ip address fro mgmt

build VM from template (do i convert template to OVA file here?)

anything else i missed?

is this easy to do?

thanks

[dtaliafe]

Scripting the ESXi installation with kickstart is pretty straight forward, but also deploying a template as part of that isn't a typical use case.  It's much easier to do that after your hosts are deployed using vCenter or PowerCLI.  If this is something like a remote site or a situation where you just have to deploy the template with the installation media I'd check out this article:

Completely Automated ESXi Deployment - Michael Lustfield

That is a somewhat complicated setup.  If you don't need to include the template on the installation media and can download it to the host this will be simpler:

https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2012/05/how-to-deploy-ovfova-in-esxi-shell.html

In both of these examples they use ovftool to deploy an OVA.

[ctbower]

Did you ever succeed in getting the kickstart file to deploy an ovf via the ovftool?