6.3. Creating Hosts with Unattended Provisioning

Unattended provisioning is the simplest form of host provisioning. You enter the host details on Satellite Server and boot your host. Satellite Server automatically manages the PXE configuration, organizes networking services, and provides the operating system and configuration for the host.

This method of provisioning hosts uses minimal interaction during the process.

Procedure

To create a host with unattended provisioning, complete the following steps:

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > Create Host.
  2. In the Name field, enter a name for the host.
  3. Click the Organization and Location tabs and change the context to match your requirements.
  4. From the Host Group list, select a host group that you want to use to populate the form.
  5. Click the Interface tab, and on the host’s interface, click Edit.

  6. Verify that the fields are populated with values. Note in particular:

    • The Name from the Host tab becomes the DNS name.
    • Satellite Server automatically assigns an IP address for the new host.
  7. In the MAC address field, enter a MAC address for the host. This ensures the identification of the host during the PXE boot process.
  8. Ensure that Satellite Server automatically selects the Managed, Primary, and Provision options for the first interface on the host. If not, select them.
  9. In the MAC address field, enter a MAC address of the host’s provisioning interface. This ensures the identification of the host during the PXE boot process.
  10. Click OK to save. To add another interface, click Add Interface. You can select only one interface for Provision and Primary.
  11. Click the Operating System tab, and verify that all fields contain values. Confirm each aspect of the operating system.

  12. Optional: Click Resolve in Provisioning template to check the new host can identify the right provisioning templates to use.

    For more information about associating provisioning templates, see 「Provisioning Templates」.

  13. Click the Parameters tab, and ensure that a parameter exists that provides an activation key. If not, add an activation key.

  14. Click Submit to save the host details.

    For more information about network interfaces, see Adding network interfaces.

This creates the host entry and the relevant provisioning settings. This also includes creating the necessary directories and files for PXE booting the bare metal host. If you start the physical host and set its boot mode to PXE, the host detects the DHCP service of Satellite Server’s integrated Capsule, receives HTTP endpoint of the Kickstart tree and installs the operating system.

When the installation completes, the host also registers to Satellite Server using the activation key and installs the necessary configuration and management tools from the Satellite Tools 6.8 repository.

For CLI Users

Create the host with the hammer host create command. 

# hammer host create --name "My_Unattended_Host" --organization "My_Organization" \
--location "My_Location" --hostgroup "My_Host_Group" --mac "aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa" \
--build true --enabled true --managed true

Ensure the network interface options are set using the hammer host interface update command. 

# hammer host interface update --host "test1" --managed true \
--primary true --provision true