Configuring Auto Deploy Stateless Caching in vSphere 6.0

Following on from my previous post on configuring custom ESXi images for PXE deployment, it piqued my interest again in Auto Deploy, now that I have a lab large enough (enough physical failure domains) to justify auto-deploy I figured i’d give it another go. I have chosen to implement stateless caching as it will allow the hosts to boot from the last used ESXi image they had if the PxE/AutoDeploy server goes down – then when it comes back up will pull the new version, this accounts for a total infrastructure outage and still allows the hosts to be bootable.

So to start off with, i’m assuming you’re using the vCenter Server Appliance and not a Windows based VC and you’re on vCenter 6.0.

Let’s go and start the Auto Deploy service on the vCenter Web UI, you’re going to need to log in with a user with @vsphere.local/SSO permissions and navigate to Administration -> System Configuration -> Services -> Auto Deploy and click the Actions dropdown and Edit Startup Type and change to Automatic:

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2017/01/auto-deploy-performance-boost-reverse-proxy-caches.html

Docker Auto Deploy ESX 6.5 

http://fdo-workspace.blogspot.com/2016/11/pxe-boot-installer-integrating_22.html

ESX god mode

LINK