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First deployment

This route takes the shortest path from a blank state all the way to an actual deployment: point a network interface to your lab, Register a few machines, create a recipe, and clone it to the rest.

1. Set up the network​

Network Settings

Open Network, select the interface connected to the machines you want boot up, and enable DHCP and PXE on it (leave the values at Note: The Proxy PXE mode is the correct option if a server already exists DHCP on that network; select Full DHCP Server if there isn't one). See Network to find out what each field on this screen does.

2. Create a zone and add your nodes​

Creating a zone and a node

Go to Infrastructure and create a zone for this lab — click Just a name—that's it. Inside it, register your nodes: hostname, MAC address and the disk device to and from which to clone. No You need to know the IP address in advance—DHCP will assign one.

If you'd rather not enter MAC addresses manually, enable capture of nodes in the area instead (see Infrastructure): Start the machines once, and Stranola automatically records each one as soon as it appears online.

3. Create a recipe​

Creating a Recipe

Go to Recipes and click New Recipe with Wizard — answer a few simple questions about your hardware, network, and what you want achieve, and Stranola gives you a reasonable recipe. (You can always Then open the full editor to fine-tune any details — see Recipes to find out what each parameter does.)

4. Expand​

Back in Infrastructure, open the context menu for your zone and Select Expand. Select the recipe you just created, then select the node that is the source (the master) if your recipe clones a live disk, and confirms the destination. Leave Wake-on-LAN enabled if your destination machines are turned off — Stranola will turn them on for you.

Click Expand Now.

5. Watch it work​

Real-time deployment dashboard

You're taken directly to the live dashboard: transfer speed, Progress by node and link health updated in real time while Cloning is moving forward. This is explained field by field in Deployments — including the live console for each machine, which is not shown here because It is not required for the first run.

When all nodes report that they have finished, your deployment is complete — go back to Deployments whenever you want to review it again, or repeat it on the same nodes later.