HP Rapid Deployment Pack - I'm clueless on how to use

[blackrabbit]

We currently have 4 hp bl20p blade server running windows server 2003. This was installed using the altiris software that came with the rapid deployment pack and was setup by a third party. Now I have to install windows 2000 on our 5th blade server using this software and have no idea where to begin. I need to make and unattended install of 2000 server I gues but have no idea where to begin. Can anyone point me to some docs or a tutorial on how to use this software?

 

[MrPudding]

It is fairly easy once you get the hang of it. If you have installed the HP RDP pack you will already have all the scripts you need for the unattended installs. If you can't work it out yourself, it is a bit convoluted at first, you can actually download the manuals from the HP site. There is also a site

http://altirusguru.something

or something like that.

Quick run down, if your third party set the system up correctly when you boot the blade up it should appear in the top left window of the main RDP window. Depending how things are set up it will be identified by either it MAC address or HP serial number. I find sn easier as they are easier to get in advance and so you can set up virtual server jobs, but that is something else.

If you expand the jobs in the lower left pane you should see various different job. They will be listed by server type eg. DL servers, ML servers and BL servers. Expand the type of server you have and you should see a choice of jobs. One of you choices will be scripted install. If it has been set up correctly all you should have to do is drag the job corresponding to your type of server and the OS you want onto the server in the top pane. That is basically that.

Altiris is very powerful. If you do what I have just described you will get a vanilla os install. However, you can do planty of other stuff as well. The script will use a file called w2k.txt (for w2k of course) this is it's version unattend .txt. Ypu can edit this to put in IP address Admin passwords and stuff like that. I can't remember the name for the 2003 version but if you edit the job you will see a small script and you will see what file it address.

Hopefully this will have helped you. I am not near an altirus server and haven't been for quite a while so my direction may be a little off. However, if it was set up correctly things should be kinda as I describe and you should be OK. If not the HP manual is very comprehensive.

MrP