View source for Login AM Operations Importing Blueprint

One of the main features of Login AM is the blueprinting feature. This feature allows users to import a ready-to-go blueprint of an environment (e.g. Citrix XenDesktop 7.6, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 RDS, VMware Horizon View 6.1 etc). Using this technology you are just a few clicks away from deploying an environment based on your own parameters (license-keys, share path etc) .

You can download a blueprint from our [https://www.loginvsi.com/downloads/login-am Template store].

==Importing a blueprint==
The easiest way to kick start your environment is by downloading a blueprint from our Template store and importing it to your Login AM environment. This way you can quickly install the environment as described in the blueprint without having to worry about the small details, which are already incorporated in the blueprint.

This example will use the Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 blueprint. In order to deploy this blueprint Login AM expects Microsoft Windows machines at it's disposal.

To prepare the import of the blueprint into a fresh Login AM environment you need to comply with the following:

*Installing Login AM on a management server
*Preparing one environment or even better a DTAP chain including the environments
*Microsoft Windows deployed on the collection machines
*Installation media files, in this case the ISO files; 
**Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 .iso
**Microsoft Windows Server 2012
**Microsoft SQL Server 2012
*Access to the downloaded blueprint (.amblp) file.

From this point we are ready to enroll the blueprint using the Login AM UI. So open your environment in the Login AM UI.

[[file:Login_AM_Importing_A_Blueprint_01.png|500px|border]]

Start the blueprint import wizard by navigating to '''Options''' and select '''Blueprint Import'''.

[[file:Login_AM_Importing_A_Blueprint_02.png|500px|border]]

Select the desired blueprint to import by opening the file dialog and navigate to the '''.amblp''' file and click '''Next'''.

[[file:Login_AM_Importing_A_Blueprint_03.png|500px|border]]

Now the information about the blueprint will be shown, please verify if this is what you need and if so, click '''Next'''

[[file:Login_AM_Importing_A_Blueprint_04.png|500px|border]]

A summary of the contents of the ready-to-import blueprint will appear. It shows the Collections, Layers and Packages which are included in the blueprint. Besides this it is also possible to include the media which could be captured in the blueprint itself. In this case the blueprint doesn't contain any media to keep the size of the blueprint as low as possible. The media needs to be imported using this import wizard.

Click '''Next''' to proceed

==Importing and assigning media==

[[file:Login_AM_Importing_A_Blueprint_05.png|500px|border]]

Now we will start importing the media, which is required for the blueprint to work, into the Login AM media library.

There are two different ways to get the installation files into the media library. Either you can import a complete folder or choose to import and expand a .zip or .iso file into the media library.

In this example we use .iso files to import the media.

[[file:Login_AM_Importing_A_Blueprint_06.png|border]]

Select the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 .iso file and click '''Import'''

[[file:Login_AM_Importing_A_Blueprint_07.png|border]]

Depending on the size of the media importing can take a while. Please be patient.

[[file:Login_AM_Importing_A_Blueprint_08.png|500px|border]]

Now we assign the imported media to media definition of the blueprint. This takes a few steps

*Click on '''Assign existing media''' (which you just imported)
*Media Browser window will open and you can navigate through the media tree and select the deepest entry, e.g. '''EN'''.
*Tie this media to a revision, in this example '''Revision 1'''
*Click '''OK'''

[[file:Login_AM_Importing_A_Blueprint_09.png|500px|border]]
 
The media has been successfully imported into the media library and is has been assigned.

Repeat this process for every media which needs to be imported.

[[file:Login_AM_Importing_A_Blueprint_10.png|500px|border]]

Verify if all media is imported and assigned correctly and click '''Next'''

==Assigning computer to the collections==

As the blueprint requires servers to actually install the imported Microsoft and Citrix software we need to assign the computers to a collection.

Adding logical computer to the Login AM configuration means that the machine are available within the Collections.

'''Generate'''

By generating computer names you create logical computers in the Login AM configuration. This way you can easily create a batch of servers.

This wil generate 10 logical computer names in the range Server00 to Server09.

'''Importing CSV'''

The CSV file contains the computer names in a single column, "computername" in this example;
 
'''Import AD'''

Import computer from the Active Directory. This is only possible when the computer which runs the Login AM UI has been joined to the domain.

You can use the regular AD search expressions to find names of the machines.

In this example the computer names are generated with the given names Server01 / Server05, these names need to correspond with the available Microsoft Windows servers and the OS variant should correspond with its collection purpose as defined in the blueprint.

The available computers in the AM console can now be assigned to the corresponding layers

As example;

Check the assigned computers carefully and click '''Next'''

Adapt the variables to your own situation. As these variables can be set at the creation (export or edit) of the blueprint the picture depicted above can differ from blueprint to blueprint.

Click '''Next'''

Now you have chance to review the blueprint information and optionally uncheck the deploy this blueprint, which will defer the deployment to a later stage.

When you deploy the blueprint now, the wizard will initialize all the computers, which you assigned to the different roles. 

Now the environment has been checked to see if connectivity and CredSSP are configured correctly.

Click '''Next'''

This will create a fully operational environment for the blueprint. In this example we would have a fully operational XenApp 7.6 Proof of Concept environment

The blueprint will be deployed and the computers will be initialized in the correct order.

When everything is done, you can close the wizard and start working with your deployed blueprint.

[[Category:Login AM]]