VSphere 5.1 – VM from Template issue

vmware-vsphere

I am having some issue deploying a VM from template with guest customization. I have not been able to find any answers on the web.
Here is my setup:

vSphere 5.1.0
Build 1064983

Create a VM (WIN2K8R2) based on Windows Server 2008 R2 with Administrator password as P@ssw0rd
Install VMware Tools
Activate Windows
Shutdown VM (WIN2K8R2)
Clone VM (WIN2K8R2) to a template (WIN2K8R2T1)
Deploy a VM (WIN2K8R2T1S1) from template (WIN2K8R2T1) with Guest Customization Spec
VM (WIN2K8R2T1S1) successfully created from template (WIN2K8R2T1)

Issue is, if i don't set "Automatically Logon as Administrator" in the Guest Customization Spec, i cannot logon to windows.
If I set "Automatically Logon as Administrator", the VM automatically logon, but if i log-off, i cannot logon
If I set "Automatically Logon as Administrator", the VM somehow removes the "Administrator" password. And if I go to "Edit Local Users", i get option "Set New Password" for the Administrator user. Once I set a new password, then i can use the new password to logon.
I also see that the Windows is no longer activated.
If i specify domain credentials in the customization spec for the VM to be joined to a domain, it does not join it.
it looks like the guest customization is not really working?

Any idea what is going on here? I have been able to reproduce this with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012.

Best Answer

Found this to be a bug when using the vSphere Web Client. When using the vSphere Client for Windows, customization works fine.

Related Solutions

VSphere Client vCenter Template Customization Specification Using Windows Sysprep Unattended Answer XML File

brian, if you're still out there, it would be great to have feed-back from you.

In regards to the biggest problem with vSphere Client vCenter Customization Specification IP address information not sticking when I load a Sysprep XML file, I confirmed with VMware that it's a known bug since ESX 4.0 (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1029174) that causes this problem with WinVista-2008-7-2008R2. The VMware tech support person said this issue was supposed to be fixed in ESX 5.0, but has been pushed back until ESX 6.0, at least. It's just too bad their Customization Specification Wizard doesn't alert you to this issue.

Brian

Centos – VMware vSphere IP assignment

The issue you're running into is that MAC addresses must be unique so when a machine is cloned the mac addresses are regenerated. Unfortunately reconfiguring your network config files to reflect the new MAC is not something that vmware tools takes care of. Additionally, CentOS will have seen that there is already an eth0 interface and put the new MAC on a new eth1 interface.

This vmware KB has your issue: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2002767

The fix can be easily scripted and I'm sure access to vcloud automation center or a similar service would facilitate that.

A simple first boot type script that could take care of it would do the following:

Find the new MAC that was generated (will be configured as eth1 if the VM only has one adapter)
Replace the MAC in ifcfg-eth0 with the MAC found in ifcfg-eth1
Remove 70-persistent-net.rules
Reboot the VM

Script example below:

#!/bin/sh

#Find the MAC that was generated for the clone (assumes only one network adapter added to the VM)
NEW_MAC=`/sbin/ifconfig eth1 |grep -i hwaddr |awk {'print $5'}`

#Replace the MAC in the eth0 file 
/bin/sed -i "s/HWADDR.*/HWADDR=$NEW_MAC/" /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

#Delete the net rules file
/bin/rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

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