Running an Unattended Install

The unattended install feature allows running the deployment scenarios from the command line, and specify the configuration parameters through the command line and an XML file. The deployment progress and errors will be output to both the console and the log file. TheDataCore Installation Manager for vSphere will abort in case if an error is encountered during the deployment.

Task Parameter

Outputs help to file vSphereDeploymentLog.txt

 DcsvSphereWizard.exe --help

Outputs DataCore Installation Manager for vSphere version to file vSphereDeploymentLog.txt:

 DcsvSphereWizard.exe --version
Outputs help for a specific command to file vSphereDeploymentLog.txt:

DcsvSphereWizard.exe <command_name>

Example: DcsvSphereWizard.exe deploy

Command line:

DcsvSphereWizard.exe deploy -a xxxx.datacoresoftware.com -u administrator@vsphere.local -p Password -v Password -e true -f deploy.xml -s true -w Server2019

Command Definition

-a, --vcaddress

Required. vCenter address.

-u, --vcusername

Required. vCenter username.
-p, --vcpassword Required. vCenter password.
-v, --vmpassword Required. VM password.
-n, --dcname Datacenter name.
-w, --winver

Windows version of the ISO image to be used.

Supported values: Server2016|Server2019.

(Default: Server2016)

-s, --nssuppress

Do not produce a warning if the virtual machine name check with nslookup returns the positive result.

(Default: false)

-e, --expertpool

Load the expert pool settings from the XML.

(Default: false)
-f, --file Required. Configuration XML file path.

Example Configuration File

For a sample configuration file, see deploy.xml.

The Language/ Region Tag displayed in the following table is the expected value that should be used for the LanguagePackTag keyword in the XML.

Language/ Region Language/ Region Tag
Chinese (Simplified, China) zh-CN
English (United States) en-US
French (France) fr-FR
German (Germany) de-DE
Italian (Italy) it-IT
Japanese (Japan) ja-JP
Spanish (Spain) es-ES

Command line:

DcsvSphereWizard.exe addnode -a xxxxx.datacoresoftware.com -u administrator@vsphere.local –p Password -v Password -e true -f addnode.xml -s true

Command Definition

-a, --vcaddress

Required. vCenter address.

-u, --vcusername

Required. vCenter username.
-p, --vcpassword Required. vCenter password.
-v, --vmpassword Required. VM password.
-n, --dcname Datacenter name.
-w, --winver

Windows version of the ISO image to be used.

Supported values: Server2016|Server2019.

(Default: Server2016)

-s, --nssuppress

Do not produce a warning if the virtual machine name check with nslookup returns the positive result.

(Default: false)
-e, --expertpool

Load the expert pool settings from the XML.

(Default: false)
-f, --file Required. Configuration XML file path.

Example Configuration File

For a sample configuration file, see addnode.xml.

Command line:

DcsvSphereWizard.exe update -a xxxx-serverxx -c administrator Password -p Password

Command Definition

-s, --address

Required. DataCore Server name or IP address

-c, --credential

Username and password
-p, --dcsadminpassword Required. DcsAdmin password
-h, --waithostsdelay

Time in seconds to wait until hosts' recovery

(Default: 300)

-v, --waitvirtualdisksdelay

Maximum time in seconds to wait until mirrored virtual disks become healthy

(Default: 300)

Command line:

DcsvSphereWizard.exe download -w <WindowsVersion>

Command Definition

-w, --winver

(Default: Server2016) Download ISO images with the specified Windows Version.

Supported values: Server2016|Server2019|All

Example

DcsvSphereWizard.exe download -w Server2016

Using the XML configuration file, it is possible to specify parameters for a new virtual disk to be created and served to the ESXi hosts during the deployment of a new SANsymphony, either in the unattended or in the interactive mode. The parameters cannot be specified in GUI.

XML Example

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<ConfigurationTemplate xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

...

<VirtualDisk Create="true" VimDatastore="true" Name="Virtual Disk 1" SizeGB="100" />

...

</ConfigurationTemplate>

 

Notes

  • Supported only in New Deployment scenario.
  • Parameters of the new virtual disk are specified in node <VirtualDisk>. This node is optional.
  • The VirtualDisk node is optional and overrides values specified in app.config file.
  • If the VirtualDisk node is not specified, then DataCore Installation Manager for vSphere uses app.config settings.
  • Default settings are:

    <setting name="CreateVirtualDisk" serializeAs="String">

    <value>False</value>

    </setting>

    <setting name="CreateVimDatastore" serializeAs="String">

    <value>False</value>

    </setting>

    <setting name="VirtualDiskName" serializeAs="String">

    <value />

    </setting>

    <setting name="VirtualDiskSizeGB" serializeAs="String">

    <value>100</value>

    </setting>

  • If the VirtualDiskName is empty, use the default name, “Smart Deployment Virtual Disk".
  • The virtual disk is mirrored. DataCore Installation Manager for vSphere uses random hosts (SANsymphony servers) in a server group (no more than three) to create a mirror disk. The datastore created from this disk will be mounted to all ESXi hosts in the SANsymphony.
  • When VimDatastore is set to true,
    <VirtualDisk Create="true" VimDatastore="true" Name="Virtual Disk 1" SizeGB="100" />
    a datastore will get created and formatted with the VMFS file system. Once this parameter is specified, the datastore will always be formatted with VMFS. DataCore Installation Manager for vSphere optionally creates a VMFS datastore on the new disk. Also DataCore Installation Manager for vSphere updates SCSI LUN display and sets the logical unit policy (Round Robin).
  • DataCore Installation Manager for vSphere does not stop the deployment in case of errors during creation of the virtual disk.

Command line:

> .\DcsvSphereWizard.exe installvcp -s xxxx-serverxx -c administrator Password -v xxxx-serverx1 xxxx-serverx2

Command Definition

-s, --address

Required. DataCore Server name or IP address.

-c, --credential

DataCore Server username and password.
-v, --vcpservers Required. Servers that need to have vCenter Plugin installed.

Command line:

> .\DcsvSphereWizard.exe updatevcp -s xxxx-serverxx -c administrator Password

Command Definition

-s, --address

Required. DataCore Server name or IP address.

-c, --credential

DataCore Server username and password.