Creating provisioning templates

Use the Template dialog box to create a provisioning template. A template is a series of actions or building blocks to be applied to the server in a particular order. A template can have one or many actions. You can change the task order in a template. The action sequence can be changed where the action makes sense, but can't be changed where it does not make sense (for example, you can't place a post-OS-specific action before the installation of the OS). There are numerous pre-configured templates for various vendors (HP, Dell, and so forth). Templates are stored as XML files in the database.

To create a template
  1. Click Tools > Distribution > OS Deployment.
  2. Under the Provisioning templates group, select either the Public or My templates folder.
  3. Click New provisioning template on the toolbar.

  5. Type a descriptive name in the Name box.
  6. Type a description in the Description box. The Name and Description are displayed in columns in the list of templates.
  7. Select the boot environment you want the template to preboot the server in (Windows PE or Linux PE).
  8. Select a target operating system for the template. The boot environment and target OS should match (for example, Windows PE and Windows OS).
  9. Click OK.

To change template properties, double-click the template or right-click the template and select Properties.

To delete a template
  1. Select a template, and click Delete.
  2. Click Yes.

You can delete only templates that have not been previously executed (locked) and that are not included in other templates. Locked templates can be deleted (removed) from the list view but remain in the database.