8.2 Features and Capabilities of the Provisioning Wizard

The Provisioning Wizard makes it easy to configure services on DSfW.

  • Dynamic Task list : As explained in What Is Provisioning?, the tasks displayed during the provisioning process vary with the scenario in which DSfW has been installed. When you launch the Provisioning Wizard, you see only those tasks that are essential to provision the DSfW server in a specific scenario.

  • Resuming Tasks : The Provisioning Wizard stores the status and details of the tasks being performed in the /etc/opt/novell/xad/provisioning.xml file. If you close the wizard window or cancel a task during provisioning, the next time you launch provisioning, the task resumes from the point it was stopped.

  • Precheck and Post check : The Provisioning Wizard is made up of pluggable scripts that contain set of instructions to validate the state of the system after a provisioning task is completed and before the start of the next provisioning task.

    Each task has a corresponding script located in the /opt/novell/xad/lib64/perl/Install folder. These scripts contain pre-operation and post-operation pluggable subroutines that take care of the validation process. The precheck ensures that all the prerequisites are met for execution of the task and the post-check ensures that the task is finished before moving on to the next task.

  • Skipping Tasks: If you choose not to execute a particular task from the Provisioning Wizard, you can choose to skip that task and later execute the task manually from the console. A validation is done to ensure that the task that is skipped has been performed manually. The logging feature is available only for tasks performed through the Provisioning Wizard. If you execute tasks manually by using the process in Section 8.9, Executing Provisioning Tasks Manually, the task execution details are logged in the /var/opt/novell/xad/log/ndsdcinit.log file.

    IMPORTANT:When you decide to skip a task from the Provisioning Wizard, the task has to be executed from the console. As part of pre-check process, checks are done to ensure that all the prerequisites are met for execution of the next task.

  • Error Handling and Logging : During execution of each provisioning task, any errors or warnings are logged in the /var/opt/novell/xad/log/provisioning.log file. The log file records details and error codes that help you when you need to debug errors. For more information about logging, see Section 8.7, Logging.