Silent configuration

We can configure an appliance silently after installation with the web service interfaces by providing a metadata image that contains essential configuration data.

After the appliance firmware has been installed, shut down the machine. The ISO image containing the configuration meta-data can then be attached to the appliance in preparation for the initial boot of the installed firmware. Once the appliance has successfully booted, it will mount the ISO image and then use the configuration meta-data to automatically configure the network.

The metadata image can be created with the local management interface or manually with a text editor.

If we use a manually created metadata image for the initial configuration of an appliance, the appliance boots up with the configured network settings automatically, but the first-steps wizard must be completed manually. We can use the local management interface or the web service interfaces to perform the first-steps configuration. To silently configure the appliance without the need to complete the first-steps wizard manually, we must use a metadata image containing the system policy. Such metadata images can be created only through the local management interface.

See the isva_config_sample.py script available from the File Downloads page of the local management interface as an example for silent configuration with scripts.

Parent topic: Common tasks