Best practices for OS Build Plans

The Hewlett Packard Enterprise provided Build Plans are templates. Most of the Hewlett Packard Enterprise provided Build Plans work without modification. However, these Build Plans are extremely generic and are not likely to meet the specific needs of your organization. You must create your own Build Plans using the Hewlett Packard Enterprise provided Build Plans as a template, and modify tasks such as installation configuration files and post installation scripts to meet your requirements.

See the Insight Control Server Provisioning Build Plans Reference Guide for detailed information about customizing Build Plans.

Build Plans supplied by Insight Control server provisioning are read only and cannot be edited, but you can save a copy to work from. For information, see Save a copy of a Hewlett Packard Enterprise provided Build Plan to allow modifications.

	NOTE: With ESXi 5.1 and later, the ESXi name changed to vSphere, however IC server provisioning OS Build Plans, scripts and configuration files might continue to use ESXi.

Good names are important for understanding what a Build Plan does and for helping you find the Build Plan you are looking for. Hewlett Packard Enterprise uses the following naming convention for the Build Plans supplied with Insight Control server provisioning.

	NOTE: The driver packages shipped from 7.2/7.2.1 do not conform to this new driver package naming convention and these driver packages are based on SPP 2013.02.

The following table describes how to use Hewlett Packard Enterprise's naming convention for Build Plans.

ProLiant<Job code>–<OS & version or Job type><Action><Modifiers>

	Description	Examples	Notes
“ProLiant”	All Build Plans will work on ProLiant servers; all Insight Control server provisioning Build Pans begin with the text “ProLiant”.
Job code	Designation that keeps job types together when sorting.	OS – OS Deployment SW – Software installation, such as SPPs, Firmware and Network configuration HW – Hardware configuration COMBO – Build Plans that combine multiple existing Build Plans into one
OS & version	The operating system to be deployed, with major and minor version numbers, plus architecture.	Windows 2008 R2 x64 RHEL6.2 SLES11 SP2	Specifying an OS implies an OS installation type of Build Plan. The OS edition such as “Enterprise” and “Basic” is not included.
	NOTE: Windows OS Build Plans support “Standard” edition by default. To support another, modify a Build Plan to use another Windows configuration file provided by Hewlett Packard Enterprise as described in Install a specific Windows edition.
Job type	What this Build Plan does if it does not deploy an operating system.	System ROM Configuration SPP Windows SPP Firmware only
Action	The action performed by this Build Plan, preceded by a modifier where applicable.	Scripted Installation Image Install On Line Installation Capture Settings
Modifiers	Anything else that might assist in describing this Build Plan.	Full Custom

For a sample list of Hewlett Packard Enterprise provided Build Plan names seeSample list of Hewlett Packard Enterprise provided Build Plans

The following is a sample list of Hewlett Packard Enterprise provided Build Plans. Check the IC server provisioning OS Build Plans view in the user interface for a complete list. For details about all of the Hewlett Packard Enterprise provided Build Plans, see the Insight Control Server Provisioning Build Plans Reference Guide.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise designs its firmware, drivers, and agents to work together at specific revision levels. The Hewlett Packard Enterprise provided Build Plans always reference the latest versions; for details see the Insight Management Support Matrix at http://www.hpe.com/info/insightmanagement/docs. For best results, you should keep your system firmware at this same revision. Failure to do so might cause deployment problems. For instructions, see Deploy a Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP).

	NOTE: OS Installation Build Plans for Insight Control server provisioning contain driver packages that use the following format: ProLiant Drivers for <OS><SPP>. This convention permits multiple versions of driver packages on the same appliance. Note that after an upgrade, all Hewlett Packard Enterprise provided Build Plans always use the latest version of the driver package and customized Build Plans continue to point to older versions of the driver package. If a customized Build Plan needs to be updated to point to the latest version of a driver packages, see Change the version of drivers used in a Build Plan for instructions.

Successful installation of the VMware operating system requires that you use an ESXi image that contains the appropriate device drivers to support the boot controller and network device in the server. Hewlett Packard Enterprise recommends using the Hewlett Packard Enterprise provided ESXi custom images which already contain ProLiant hardware drivers. Alternatively, you can use VMware's ImageBuilder tool to create your own image with the desired drivers.

Before running an OS Build Plan on a SAN, make sure you only present the LUN for the system disk where the OS is to be installed. Once the OS is installed, the LUN for the other disks may be presented.