q CPU – Verify the LinMin Server has one of the following Intel or AMD CPU architectures:  x86 (IA32) or x86_64 (EM64T, Intel  64 or AMD64). Recommended minimum RAM: 512MB. The LinMin Server will run on systems as old as Pentium III.

q MAC Address – Identify the LinMin Server’s MAC address for NIC you will be using to provision clients and email the MAC address to LinMin-Support@LinMin.com so that a license key file can be generated before you start the product installation. If you need assistance with identifying the MAC address, please refer to the appendix in the LinMin BMP User’s Guide.

q Disk space – Verify the server has disk space sufficient to store all software that will be provisioned, including operating systems and user-specified software: if you provision only 1 or 2 distros, a 40GB disk is suffucient.  If you wish to capture disc images of the client systems, considerable disc storage on the LinMin Server should be available (locally or NFS-mounted).

Imaging compresses client system disk images approximately 3 to 1, so if data on a client's disk totals 120GB, plan on 40GB of storage on the LinMin Server.

The typical Linux distro media is around 4GB and Windows OS (without drivers) is 1-2GB.

q Operating system – Review the Quick Start Guide for OS requirements

q Running the LinMin Server in a virtual machine: VMware (ESX and Workstation/Server) are excellent hosts for the LinMin Server. However if you wish to use Xen, make sure that the host OS is a supported version of Red Hat or CentOS (for example, if your host OS is Debian and you create a xen VM running CentOS or Red Hat, the LinMin Server will not function properly).

q Language – Please make sure that you specify to install the OS with English US language. If you have already installed RHEL or CentOS with another language, you must change it by editing /etc/sysconfig/i18n, and changing, for example, LANG="de_DE.UTF-8" to LANG="en_US.UTF-8"

q Services – All services required to run the LinMin Server are automatically installed and configured with the installation scripts (DHCP, PostgreSQL, etc.) Note that DHCP (dhcpd.conf) is installed as non-authoritative to better coexist with other DHCP servers. If the LinMin Server DHCP is the only DHCP server on the network, the authoritative directive should be uncommented (changed from “# authoritative” to “authoritative”). Learn about co-existing with DHCP servers and running on multiple LANs/VLANs.

q HTTP server -- Verify that the system where the LinMin Server will be installed has no HTTP server. The  LinMin Server uses Port 80, the same used by Apache for example.

q Firewall Ports – All processes associated with the Firewall ports listed in Table 1 must be stopped during installation.

Firewall Ports That Must Have Processes Stopped During Installation of the LinMin Server:

R Step 1 – Identify all processes and process IDs (PIDs) associated with networking ports

Identify the ports listed in Table 1, their processes, and PIDs by executing the netstat command with the following options:

netstat -pan

The stdout from the netstat -pan command lists the networking ports, the names of the processes associated with each port, and the PIDs for each process. Identify each port shown in Table 1, and for each identified port, make a note of all associated processes and their PIDs

R Step 2 – Remove the symbolic links between the identified processes and the init.d file

Remove the symbolic links between every process identified processes and the init.d file

The init.d file is usually located at /etc/init.d or /etc/rc.d/init.d

The method for removing symbolic links between processes and the init.d file is determined by the Linux distribution. Consult your distribution's documentation for instructions

Any http process operating on Port 8080 can be allowed to operate, and its symbolic links to the file init.d can be left in operation.

q Internet Connection – Make sure you have access to a Yum repository (either a remote mirror or RHN, or a local mirror or Satellite) from the LinMin Server.  It will be needed during the automated installation process only (many packages will be downloaded from repositories).  Once you have installed the LinMin Server, it will no longer need an Internet connection unless you provision Ubuntu or Debian systems.

q Static IP Address – Verify the LinMin Server has a static IP address: in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ the file ifcfg-eth0 must contain the static IP address, subnet mask, DNS and Gateway addresses, and the DCHP flag should say “none”. Should you subsequently change your LinMin Server's IP address, refer to the Topic Reconfiguring the LinMin Server.

q Single subnet – Verify all LinMin Server clients will be on the same LAN segment as the LinMin Server. They can either be physically on the LAN segment or be connected through a DHCP relay or virtual LAN.

q DHCP server – Verify a DHCP server (“Primary DHCP Server”) is on the same subnet as the LinMin Server; it must not be on the LinMin Server.

When the LinMin Server installs its own DHCP server, it defaults to "non-authoritative", allowing for coexistence and eliminating conflicts with other DHCP servers on the network. If the LinMin Server's DHCP server is to be the only DHCP server on the LinMin Server subnet, the "#authoritative" line in the /etc/dhcpd.conf file needs to be uncommented to "authoritative". Learn more about co-existing with DHCP servers and running on multiple LANs/VLANs.

q IP address range – Verify you have a range of available IP addresses to assign to the LinMin Server's DHCP server that does not conflict with the range of IP addresses assigned by the Primary DHCP Server. The LinMin Server issues short-lived dynamic addresses during provisioning, then upon rebooting, the LinMin Server client will be directed to obtain a dynamic IP address from the Primary DHCP Server (unless the LinMin Server client was assigned a static IP address). The range should be the maximum number of LinMin Server Clients you wish to provision simultaneously.

q Ports open on your server firewall during provisioning and imaging – If you provision clients over a firewall-protected network, verify the ports listed in Table 2 are open (defined as exceptions) on the LinMin Server and on any machine located between the LinMin Server and the LinMin Server's client to be provisioned.

FTP access can be prevented using an iptables rule:

iptables –A INPUT –p tcp –-dport 21 –j REJECT

Then to reactivate iptables on reboot, issue this command:

chkconfig –-level 345 iptables on

The following is an example of the network configuration of a VM running a CentOS guest with the provisioning server installed, running on a Windows XP system with VMware Workstation:

CentOS VM running on top of XP:

cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

# Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] 79c970 [PCnet32 LANCE]

DEVICE=eth0

BOOTPROTO=none

HWADDR=00:0C:29:BA:CE:D6

ONBOOT=yes

IPADDR=192.168.0.11

NETWORK=192.168.0.0

BROADCAST=192.168.0.255

GATEWAY=192.168.0.254

DNS=192.168.0.254

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

[root@localhost keygen]# ifconfig

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0C:29:BA:CE:D6

         inet addr:192.168.0.11  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

         inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:feba:ced6/64 Scope:Link

         UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

         RX packets:129039 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

         TX packets:95943 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

         collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

         RX bytes:133577790 (127.3 MiB)  TX bytes:19632212 (18.7 MiB)

         Interrupt:185 Base address:0x1400

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback

         inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

         inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

         UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

         RX packets:2347 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

         TX packets:2347 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

         collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

         RX bytes:4358042 (4.1 MiB)  TX bytes:4358042 (4.1 MiB)

Windows XP SP3 Host OS running VMware Workstation:

ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

       Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . :

       Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :

       Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

       IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

       WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

       DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : hq.linmin.com

Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet8:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet8

       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-08

       Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.211.1

       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet1:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1

       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-01

       Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.244.1

       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : hq.linmin.com

       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller

       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0F-B0-7D-4B-AC

       Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

       Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.106

       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.254

       DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.254

       DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.254

       Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.254

       Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, July 12, 2010 10:12:23 AM

       Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, July 13, 2010 10:12:23 AM

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 6:

       Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : TAP-Win32 Adapter V9

       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-FF-91-FC-A1-78

You should have both host and guest in the same network (in this case, it's 192.168.0.0). Ignore everything VMware-related in ipconfig (it's automatically generated).

Make sure your VM uses bridged networking (an option when you create the VM).

You'll then be able to provision and image Windows and Linux systems running in Virtual Machines on the same host that runs your LinMin Server installation.

Tip for notebook users needing to provision and image in multiple locations: change your secondary office/home network settings to match your primary office/data center's network settings. By doing so, you can close your laptop, leave the data center or office, and have everything work automatically when you start provisioning or imaging in your secondary locations.

cd /usr/bin

perl vmware-configure.pl

If you have multiple ISOs on a VMware Workstation Host OS and LBMP running on a Guest OS in a VM, you can avoid wasting disk space by using VMware Tools and creating symbolic links from the Guest OS to the Host OS.

First, on your Linux Host OS, create the desired directory structure:

/home/tftpboot/ISOs/esx               (for the VMware hypervisors ESX and ESXi)

/home/tftpboot/ISOs/linux

/home/tftpboot/ISOs/windows           (for Windows Server 2003 & Windows XP)

/home/tftpboot/ISOs/windows/win7_2008 (for Windows Server 2008 & Windows 7)

Then use VMware Tools to enable Folder Sharing and add a shared folder with:

Name = ISOs

Host Path = /home/tftpboot/ISOs

Finally, on the LinMin Server, create symbolic links:

cd /home/tftpboot

rm -rf ISOs

ln -s /mnt/hgfs/ISOs ISOs

You can see the Host OS directory structure:

ll ISOs

ISOs -> /mnt/hgfs/ISOs

ll ISOs/

esx

linux

windows

Now when you use ISO media management scripts for Linux, Windows and ESX, you can select the desired ISO from the list of ISOs stored on your Host OS, without having had to copy your ISOs to the LinMin Server system.