How to do it...

The following procedure prepares the vSphere environment to work with auto deploy:

1. Log in to vCenter Server.
2. Navigate to Home | Host Profiles as shown here:
   
3. Click on Extract Profile from host as shown:       
   
4. Choose a reference host based on which new hosts can be deployed and click on Finish:
   
5. Navigate to Home | Auto Deploy.
6. Click on Software Depots | Import Software Depot, provide a suitable name and browse to the downloaded offline bundle as shown here:
   
7. Click on the Deploy Rules tab and then click on New Deploy Rule.

1. Provide a name for the rule and choose the pattern that should be used to identify the target host; in this example we have chosen the IP range defined in the DHCP scope, also multiple patterns can be nested for further validation:
   
2. Choose an image profile from the list available in the software depot as shown here:
   

1. (Optional) Choose a host profile as shown here:

1. (Optional) In the Select host location screen, select the inventory and click on OK to complete:

1. Click on Activate/Deactivate rules.

1. Choose the newly created rule and click on Activate as shown here:

1. Confirm that the rule is Active as shown here: