Setting up OS Deployment in an air-gapped network

You can choose to configure your OS Deployment and Bare Metal Imaging site in an air-gapped network.

To setup the OS Deployment and Bare Metal Imaging site in an air-gapped environment, you need to manually download and cache specific files on the machines where the IBM BigFix Console is installed as well as on the IBM BigFix Server. To set up your environment, you must perform the following steps.

1. Obtain OS Deployment and Bare Metal Imaging Site content

You must use the Make Mirror Archive utility, to download the OS Deployment and Bare Metal Imaging external site content from an internet connected machine. This utility requires the external site masthead file and cannot be run on the BigFix Server.

For details, see OSD in an Air-gapped environment

2. Pre-cache OS Deployment and Bare Metal Imaging Site downloads

To pre-cache the OS Deployment site files, you must obtain the OS Deployment and Bare Metal Imaging site masthead file, and create a cache folder for the pre-cached SHA1 files on an internet connected machine. Download and run the BES Download Cacher utility available on the Wiki Utilities page at the following link: Utilities . The utility copies files in the cache folder you specified. You must then transfer these files to the SHA1 download cache on the Endpoint Manager Server. The default location of the download cache is: ...\Program files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Server\wwwrootbes\bfmirror\downloads\sha1.

For more information, see OSD in an Air-gapped environment .

3. Pre-cache additional files on the IBM BigFix Server:

Important: The OS deployment and Bare Metal Imaging site requires the Upload Maintenance Service (UMS) on the BigFix Server. This service must be installed and running to manage and maintain files correctly. You can install this service from the BES Support site, using the "Install BES Server Plugin Service" Fixlet.

You must pre-cache additional files on the server. The following files must be downloaded to the SHA1 download cache on the BigFix Server.

The default location of the download cache is: ...\Program files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Servker\wwwrootbes\bfmirror\downloads\sha1

If you want to install the latest Bare Metal OS Deployment Server version from the network using the corresponding button in the Bare Metal Server Manager dashboard, you must also pre-cache the following;

http://software.bigfix.com/download/osd/bmserver.zip.

The downloaded files must be renamed with their SHA1 before you copy them to the SHA1 folder.

If you are provisioning a Linux system, and installing an IBM BigFix Client, you must also pre-cache the selected client installation packages. For example, if you are provisioning SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 and select to install Endpoint Manager Client Version 8.2 (32-bit), you must pre-cache the following package:
TEMImageCatalog.xml file

If you are performing a Bare Metal provisioning of a Windows system with an image of type Setup, and installing an IBM BigFix Client, you must pre-cache the selected client installation packages. For example, if you are provisioning one of the supported Windows versions, and select to install the Endpoint Manager Client Version 9.1.1229.0, you must pre-cache the following package:

<IEMOSAgentImage>
  <CompatibleOS name="MicrosoftWindows" version="5.1" /> 
  <CompatibleOS name="MicrosoftWindows" version="5.2" /> 
  <CompatibleOS name="MicrosoftWindows" version="6.0" /> 
  <CompatibleOS name="MicrosoftWindows" version="6.1" /> 
  <CompatibleOS name="MicrosoftWindows" version="6.2" /> 
  <CompatibleOS name="MicrosoftWindows" version="6.3" /> 
  <ImageName>BigFix-BES-Client-9.1.1229.0.exe</ImageName> 
  <ImageSha>ac13e360e122d2079f88628dfa6e89af71c29b599aa45917514938376809e884</ImageSha>
        <ImageSize>12136344</ImageSize> 
        <ImageURL>http://software.bigfix.com/download/bes/91/
           BigFix-BES-Client-9.1.1229.0.exe</ImageURL> 
 </IEMOSAgentImage>

For more information, see the Image catalog file at this link: TEMImageCatalog.xml

Note: You can use the relevance debugger (QnA debugger) to find the sha1 of each of these files by using the following relevance expression:

(name of it, sha1 of it) of files of folder "c:\AirgapOSD"

where c:\AirgapOSD is the folder to which you downloaded the files on the internet connected machine.

4. Download additional files to the machines where the BigFix Console is installed:

The following files must be downloaded and placed within %USERPROFILE%\OSDeployment on the console machines. This step also applies if your console machines are behind a proxy.