Server patterns

A server pattern represents a compute node configuration that is deployed before an operating system is installed. It includes local storage configuration, network adapter configuration, boot settings, and other IMM and UEFI firmware settings.

When you define a server pattern, select the category patterns and address pools that you need for the desired configuration for a specific group of compute nodes. You can define multiple server patterns to represent different configurations in your data center. When a server pattern is deployed to multiple compute nodes, multiple server profiles are generated automatically (one profile for each compute node). Each profile inherits settings from the parent server pattern, which enables you to control a common configuration pattern from a single place.

Attention: When you create a new server pattern from scratch, you are required to define the boot settings for compute nodes. If you deploy the new server pattern to compute nodes, the existing boot order on the compute nodes is overwritten with the default boot order settings in the new server pattern.

If you have deployed a server pattern to compute nodes, and the compute nodes will not start, the problem might be that the original boot settings were overwritten by the default boot order settings in the new server pattern. To restore the original boot settings on the compute nodes, follow the procedure described in Recovering compute node boot settings after server pattern deployment.

Important: When you create server patterns, make sure that you create them for each compute node type. For example, create a server pattern for all Flex System x240 compute nodes and a server pattern for all Flex System x440 compute nodes. Do not apply a server pattern created for one compute node type to a different compute node type.

To ensure that your configuration patterns are not lost if the management node fails, back up the management software after you create or modify configuration patterns.