Changing Bare Metal Target Network Configuration Settings

You can define or remove configuration settings for one or more network interface cards on selected targets using task 354.

To set or remove network configuration settings for specific bare metal targets, run the Change Bare Metal Target Network configuration settings task (ID 354). The parameters set with this task are used together with what you specify in the bare metal profile that is deployed on the target. The configuration policy that you specify in the Network tab of the profile creation wizard determines whether the parameters specified with this task will take precedence over the parameters specified in the profile.

Typically, this task is useful when you are configuring network settings for specific bare metal targets that have more than one network interface, or when your targets must be configured with a static IP. In this scenario, you can define the common subset of network configuration parameters in the bare metal profile, and use this task to configure the unique settings for each target.

Select the required configuration action (Set or Remove) and specify the configuration type (Static or dhcp). You can define the following network configuration parameters for the network interface card (NIC) identified by the specified MAC address:
  • IP Address
  • Subnet mask
  • Default gateway
  • Connection name
  • Preferred DNS Server
  • Alternate DNS Server
  • DNS Domain
  • Domain Search Order

You can set or remove configurations for multiple network interface cards (NICs) on the same target, by running the task for each interface and specifying the corresponding MAC address. If your targets have a single network interface card, the MAC address is not mandatory.

You can optionally associate a connection name to each NIC. For Windows targets, the connection name becomes the name of the network interface. For Linux targets, if the MAC address is not specified, the connection name is used to identify the network interface that will be configured.

The Remove action deletes all network configuration parameters on a specific target interface. If multiple NICs were configured, the network configuration parameters of the specified MAC address is deleted. If the MAC address is not specified, the settings of the first (oldest) configured interface are removed. To selectively delete one or more network parameters, use the Set action and specify an asterisk (*) in the corresponding parameter value fields. The fields marked with the asterisk are reset for the specified target. The asterisk is ignored if specified in the MAC address field.

Important:
  • If you are defining a Connection name, if the target operating system is Linux, the operating system will limit it to nine characters.
  • If you are defining a static IP configuration for a specific target, the IP address, Subnet Mask, and default gateway values are mandatory. If you are defining a static IP address for a target with a single interface, the address you specify must be in a network from which the OS Deployment server can be reached, else the deployment task will not complete.
  • When you configure multiple NICs, you must always specify the MAC address that uniquely identifies it, otherwise results might be different from what you expect.
  • If you are defining a dynamic (DHCP) configuration for the target, the only parameter that can be specified is the MAC address. If the MAC address is omitted, the interface that performed the PXE boot is configured by default.
  • The Domain Search order parameter is ignored if the target operating system is Windows.
Example:
A company network has targets with two network interfaces. One must be configured with a dynamic (DHCP) configuration, and the other with a static IP configuration.
  1. In the Bare Metal Profile that will be deployed, the following parameters are specified in the Networktab. These parameters are common to all targets in the network:
    • Preferred DNS Server: 192.168.100.125
    • DNS Domain: company.com
  2. For each target, task 354 is run twice to configure each network interface. For example:
    First run:
    • Configuration action: Set
    • Configuration type: dhcp
    • MAC Address<MAC1> where <MAC1> is the MAC address of the network interface that must have a dynamic IP configuration.
    Second run:
    • Configuration action: Set
    • Configuration type: static
    • MAC Address: <MAC2> where <MAC2> is the MAC address of the network interface that must have a static IP configuration.
    • IP address: 10.10.6.95
    • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
    • Default gateway: 10.10.6.254
When the profile is deployed, all targets will have the same Preferred DNS Server name and domain, and each individual target will be configured as specified in task 354.