Creating a new hardware profile is easily done by obtaining the hardware configuration of a reference server (plus firmware baseline) and changing the settings to your needed virtual machine configuration:

• Boot Order - boot device sequence, harddrive sequence
• BIOS Settings - memory. processor, SATA, integrated devices, serial communications. embedded server management, power management, system security, and miscellaneous settings
• iDRAC Settings - network, user list, and user configuration (IPMI/iDRAC privileges)
• RAID Configuration - select controller (physical disks, global hotspares, virtual disks), select specific virtual disk (RAID level, size, protocol, media format, physical disks, dedicated hotspares)
• Firmware Baseline - repository and bundle

Note: The Dell plug-in enables the Processor Virtualization Technology BIOS processor setting in all deployed servers, regardless of the setting in the reference server.

Warning: When you create a hardware profile from a clone reference server, you must enable Collect System Inventory On Restart (CSIOR) setting and restart the server to ensure accurate inventory and configuration information.

Procedure: Enable the reference server CSIOR setting procedure.

You have three ways to build a hardware profile:

• Select a Clone Reference Server and obtain its hardware settings. The hardware profile uses the inventoried Reference Server settings, found at the time you created the profile.
• Obtain a server's hardware settings and modify settings to create minor variations of the reference server.
• Start with common hardware defaults and build a custom hardware profile by choosing its settings.

To add a new hardware profile:

1. Click Create New. The Hardware Profile: Profile Name pop-up displays.
2. Enter the Profile Name and an optional Description. Provide distinctive information to manage custom hardware configurations.
3. Click Save. If you want to stop creating a new hardware profile, click X (upper-right corner) to close the Hardware Profile: profile name pop-up.
4. Click Reference Server. You have three major ways to build a hardware profile:
• Click Browse.
  When the Group and Service Tag pop-up displays, select a server with the mouse.
  Click Save to use this server and obtain the hardware settings from a clone reference server.
• Click Browse to obtain a majority of settings from a reference server and customize desired settings.
• Under Profile Defaults, select the Custom Defaults option to build a hardware profile by selecting settings in the left pane areas. (See subsequent steps.)
5. Click Save to retain Reference Server settings.
   For the Clone Reference Server option, the Hardware Configuration is extracted from the reference server and populates the profile.
6. To return to a previous Hardware Profile section, click one of the left pane areas: Reference Server (select reference server, Boot Order, BIOS Settings, iDRAC Settings, or RAID Configuration) or Firmware Baseline.
• Use the (+) Expand and (-) Collapse controls to display individual pane sections; where you can make changes independently of other sections.
• Click Edit to change settings.
• For settings with restricted options, use the drop-down lists.
• Click Save to record changes, click Cancel to discard all changes prior to clicking Edit.
7. Click Boot Order under the Reference Server navigation.
1. Use the (+) Expand control to display Boot Device Sequence and Hard Drive Sequence settings.
2. Select desired Edit button to make changes.
3. Select what part of the Boot Device Sequence to display using the View/Configure drop-down list.
4. Select a desired device in the table using the mouse.
5. Click Move Up or Move Down to change boot order of the device.
6. Click Boot Sequence Retry to select desired retry method.
7. Click Save to record changes, click Cancel to discard all changes prior to clicking Edit.
8. Repeat the previous six steps to change the Hard Drive Sequence, if needed.
8. Click BIOS Settings under the Reference Server navigation.
1. Use the (+) Expand control to display memory. processors, integrated devices, serial communications. embedded server management, power management, system security, and miscellaneous settings.
2. Select desired Edit button to make changes.
3. Click Save to record changes.
9. Click iDRAC Settings under the Reference Server navigation.
1. Click Network under the iDRAC Settings navigation.
2. make desired changes.
3. Click User List under the iDRAC Settings navigation.
4. Add, edit, or delete users from iDRAC User List. Select whether to include the User List in the Profile. Click Save.
5. Click User Configuration under the iDRAC Settings navigation.
6. Separately, (+) Expand the General, IPMI User Privileges, and IDRAC User Privileges to change. Click Save.
10. Click RAID Configuration under the Reference Server area.
1. Use the Select Controller list to display controller information.
2. Use the Select Virtual Disks list to display details about the VDs belonging to the selected controller.
3. Select whether to include the RAID configuration in the profile.
4. Click Save.
11. Click Firmware Baseline.
1. Select Repository list to generate bundle list.
2. Select Bundle to display associated BIOS/Firmware versions with VMWare Update Manager.
3. Click Save to retain this bundle as the baseline.
12. Click X (upper-right corner) to close the Hardware Profile: profile name pop-up.

• Hardware Profiles

View or download Dell virtualization documentation at: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/eslvmwre/
View or download Dell hardware documentation for PowerEdge™ Servers