Managing OS templates

The 3.0.1 version of the metalcloud-cli introduces a new series of commands that will help with the building of new operating system templates.

This new command metalcloud-cli os-template register command allows the admin to download a standard ISO from a repository and then create all necessary records in MetalSoft for an OOB or PXE based install process.

MetalSoft provides a series of out-of-the-box ‘source templates’ (or base templates) covering major versions of operating systems. The ESXI 7 ‘source template’ can be used build and deploy ESXI 7.0.1, 7.0.2, 7.0.3… templates to an environment.

Listing available source templates

metalcloud-cli os-template list-source-templates
+-----------+-----------------------+--------------+----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------+
| TYPE      | VERSION               | ARCHITECTURE | DEPLOY PROCESS | BOOT TYPE | SOURCE TEMPLATE PATH                      |
+-----------+-----------------------+--------------+----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------+
| AlmaLinux | 8                     | x64          | pxe            | UEFI      | AlmaLinux/non-OOB-8                       |
| ESXi      | 7.0.0                 | x64          | virtual_media  | UEFI      | ESXi/OOB-7.0.0                            |
| ESXi      | 7.0.0.u03-DellEMC-A02 | x64          | virtual_media  | UEFI      | ESXi/OOB-7.0.0.u03-DellEMC_Customized-A02 |
| Ubuntu    | 20.04                 | x64          | virtual_media  | UEFI      | Ubuntu/non-OOB-20.04                      |
| Ubuntu    | 20.04                 | x64          | pxe            | UEFI      | Ubuntu/non-OOB-20.04-iscsi-ibft-uefi      |
| Ubuntu    | 20.04.4               | x64          | virtual_media  | UEFI      | Ubuntu/OOB-20.04                          |
| Windows   | 2019                  | x64          | virtual_media  | UEFI      | Windows/OOB-uefi 2019                     |
| Windows   | 10.0.17763            | x64          | virtual_media  | UEFI      | Windows/non-OOB-uefi 2019                 |
| Windows   | 2019                  | x64          | virtual_media  | Legacy    | Windows/OOB-bios 2019                     |
+-----------+-----------------------+--------------+----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------+
Total: 9 Repository templates

Registering a new template

Besides the source template, the original iso is required for registering a new template.

  1. Download the ISO from any official repository to a local directory
  2. Identify the source template path required for the OS family you are adding such as Ubuntu/OOB-20.04 in the output of the metalcloud-cli os-template list-source-templates command.
  3. Create the new template based on the downloaded iso and the entry in the source template path column
metalcloud-cli os-template register --source-template Ubuntu/OOB-20.04 --name "Ubuntu 20.04.4 OOB" --source-iso /a/iso/ubuntu-22.04.1-live-server-amd64.iso --label ubuntu-2004-oob
  1. Upload the ISO on the repo at the specified location if not already uploaded.

Checking if the template has been registered:

You can use the Sidebar > Templates to verify if the new template exists or use the CLI:

metalcloud-cli os-template list
+---+-----------------+--------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+-----------------------+--------------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+----------------------+
| ID| LABEL           | NAME               | DESCRIPTION | SIZE_MBYTES | BOOT_METHODS | OS                    | INSTALL_BOOTLOADER | OS_BOOTLOADER | USER_ID | CREATED              | UPDATED              |
+---+-----------------+--------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+-----------------------+--------------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 1 | ubuntu-2004-oob | Ubuntu 20.04.4 OOB |             | 2048        | local_drives | Ubuntu 20.04.4 x86_64 |                    |               | 3       | 2023-01-18T10:40:32Z | 2023-01-18T10:40:32Z |
+---+-----------------+--------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+-----------------------+--------------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+----------------------+
Total: 1 Templates

Developing a new source template for legacy systems

If you need to build a new template for a new family of operating systems the following resource might help: Managing OS templates for legacy (PXE)