VMware Communities: Message List - Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

syousef — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:39:00 GMT

Strange, I'm running Update 4 and currently have four hosts setup in a HA cluster and two of the hosts have 37 VMs each. I didn't know about the 35 VM limit.

I'll be upgrading to Update 5 soon as I can get it scheduled out. Thanks for the heads up.

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

nrhudso — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:03:47 GMT

From what I have read in the release notes for VC2.5 Update 5, some of the new features above vc2.5u4 includes support for more than 35 virtual machines per host in an HA cluster, customization of Windows Server 2008 guest operating systems, and Performance Overview plug-in, which provides a single view of key performance metrics for CPU, memory, disk, and network without having to navigate through multiple charts. I am updating our VC to 2.5U5 as we are preparing for 2008 deployments at the begining of the new year.

Nate Hudson
Senior Systems Engineer
West Bend Mutual Insurance

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

syousef — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:23:00 GMT

Same problem here. Haven't found a workaround yet.

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Corleone83 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:50:38 GMT

Hi. I work with a VC2.5 U4 and i have tryed to perform many cloning with customization from a Windows 2008 template, but everytime the new VM didn't started properly because of an error: "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error...", after clicked OK, the VM went in loop and never started.

I've read on the release note of VC2.5U4 that can be a licensing problem. My Win2008 template is already licensed, and, when i customize, i write on LincenseKey input the same of the template.

Should i put off the license of the template first of customization?

plz Help me

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

JoJoGabor — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:03:00 GMT

No it should be straightforward. Again make sure the VM is getting a correct IP address and that it can resolve the domain name via DNS. It normally just works. I think you sadi you handt changed the SSL certs in Vcenter, which is good, sometimes this can stop sysprep from reading the encrypted passwords in the customisation spec. The password is blank in the template VM isnt it? If it cant change the password, it wont login to start the domain join process.

Did you watch the VM as it started up for the first time to ensure the sysprep process ran? You dont need to do anything but after a couple of minutes at the Ctrl-Alt-Delete screen, sysprep will kick in and reboot the VM to perform all the customisation. Sometimes if you're too quick and login manually it will stop the sysprep process from kicking in

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

obriensl — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:08:59 GMT

ok, i gave up on trying to get our current templates to deploy correctly, and ended up building a new windows 2008 template from scratch, and now I can do a deploy from it, but i cannot seem to get it to promote the vm into our AD domain. is there a trick to getting customization wizard to promote the deployed vm? I gave it my domain credentials in the wizard.

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

obriensl — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:38:16 GMT

w2k3 and xp are still working fine after the upgrade to vcenter 2.5 U4/esx3.5 U4. we've had those working for awhile, ever since 2.0/3.0.1. the 2k8/vista templates are new, we're trying to get them to work. we are using DHCP in the template and the deployed vms. I did get the NIC to work, and pick up an IP address by changing the TMP and TEMP sys environment variables to %systemroot%\TEMP and TMP (found that info in another discussion) in the template. I still can't get it to change the vm name or promote to the domain. I'm using the manual entry customization wizard, not a saved one. One thing I did notice... I tried something else that was suggested - changing the local admin account pw to blank in the template-and noticed that the password stayed blank on the deployed vm. it didn't set the pw I put into the customization wizard. So, I'm guessing that its still not getting all the way thru the customization, but no idea why.

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

JoJoGabor — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:31:11 GMT

Hmmm it seems strange, W2k8 is one of the simplest becuase sysprep is inbuilt. Can you deploy w2k3 VMs from the same vCenter once you copy the sysprep files over? Is the VM using DHCP or are you specifying an IP address in the spec when deploying? If Using DHCP check your DHCP server to find the IP address then ping it when the customisation is in progress just to ensure the IP address is picked up when the template is being deployed.

Is your vCenter at Update 4?

Have the SSL certificates changed on the vCenter? This can stop the password in the cust psec from being read correctly.

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

obriensl — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:47:49 GMT

has anyone gotten any more info on this issue? i'm seeing all kinds of problems doing windows 2008/vista deploys. I have all the latest esx and vcenter. the template is in a workgroup, its got the latest tools installed - I did finally get it to assign an IP address by changing the tmp and temp environment variables to point to the %systemroo%\temp and tmp directories, but still can't get the vm to change the dns name or promote to the domain. I tried the setting in the customization wizard to have the admin auto logon once, but that doesn't work for me either - it doesn't auto logon.

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Chanaka — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:25:28 GMT

Yup that was checked already. I mean I have truned google inside out to find out no explanation and the one that came close was the folloing thread.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/197130

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

JoJoGabor — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:57:20 GMT

Have you ensured the template VM has got a blank administrator password? This needs to be done to enable the sysprep wizard to overwrite with the password that you specified, which it needs to login and join the domain - took me ages to find that one!!

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Chanaka — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:48:26 GMT

I have the same issue. I've upgraded to Update 4 on both ESX and VC and have had multiple issues with deploying 2008 VMs from a template with the customization wazard. I mean during the new VM's first reboot it goes through the customization

and do everything except for adding the computer to the domain. I have tried this on 2 different templates but same story. Looking at the guestcust log file on the VM created out of the template there are no visible errors

with regards to the networking either. If you try to manually join the compuer using the same account specified within the customization template, it works fine.

VMWARE

Any ideas ????

Chanaka

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

phyler — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:16:47 GMT

I have it working, sorta. It works were I can deploy a template and it boots, then when you reboot it, it will say "VMWare Imaging Customization in process" (or something of that nature). It definitely does something as afterwards you have to reset the Admin password. But, it doesn't change the VM name as specified in the customization and you get the "VMWare Imaging Customization in process" message every time you boot.

I have tried setting the OS to both Windows 2008 and Vista on the template and neither matters. I also have the latest tools installed. The ESX server is fully patched (143128) and vCenter is Update 4.

I must be overlooking something simple. Thoughts?

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

mrdenny — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:38:14 GMT

It appears that I've gotten it working. The template must have the latest version of VMware Tools installed on it. I had to convert the machine to a VM, fire it up and upgrade the tools on it. Then the vCenter server would let me deploy the template.

Thank You,
Denny Cherry
Senior Database Administrator / Architect
Awareness Technologies

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

jjgunn — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:52:18 GMT

Windows Vista has sysprep built-in to the OS.

For all other Microsoft OS's (Win 2000 or Win 2003 or WinXP, etc.) You must install sysprep on Virtual Center

The VM or template you are cloning from must be set to Microsoft Windows Vista. Once the clone completes, power the clone on. Be sure to leave the OS setting in Virtual Center set to Microsoft Windows Vista on your new clone. The customization will complete. Once completed, you will see all your customization intact. You can then shut down the VM and switch it back to Win 2008 in VC.

I'm using ESX 3.5 U2 (build 110268) with VC 2.5 U3 (build 119598) and all customization worked properly with Win 2008 using this method. I have 2 successful Win 2008 servers virtualized.

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

JoJoGabor — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:10:39 GMT

Does anyone know the method that vCenter customises templates - does it use sysprep? As far as I am aware Microsoft do not officially support Windows 2008 machines that have been cloned with sysprep. The only supported method is using WAIK/WDS

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

mrdenny — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:23:17 GMT

Our hosts are 3.5.0 build 123630. For the OS Type I've got "Microsoft windows Server 2008 (32-bit)" selected. Tried with Vista as well, no joy there either.

I also tried creating a new template and no joy on a new template.

Hopefully I don't need to update the host as well. Our machines are local storage so no vMotion and I hate to take an outage just for this.

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

jonb157 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:57:41 GMT

I wonder if you ESX host needed to be updated. What version of ESX/build are you using? I just updated our lab with Vc 2.5 update 4 and I'm going to test the customization wizard on a Windows 2k8 64 bit VM. What did you choose for the VM setting option for OS-type?

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

mrdenny — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:49:32 GMT

Strange. I just installed U4 and it is still telling me that it can't configure winLonghornGuest machines. Full text is

"Customiazation of the guest operating system 'winVistaGuest' is not support in thei confuguration. Microsoft Vista an dLinux guests with Local Volume Manager are supported only for recent eSX host and VMware Tools versions. Please refer to Virtual Center documentation for supported configuration."

Any ideas here?

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

mrbrown66 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:34:16 GMT

Thanks for your email. I am away on sick leave until Tuesday 3rd March 2009

Please contact the Service Desk or Peter Kenny (peter.kenny@mbf.com.au - IT Operations Manager) in my absence.

Thanks,
Jared Devers

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

dgrace — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:27:29 GMT

mrbrown66- looks like you were just a day early....

VMware vCenter 2.5 Update 4: "vCenter now supports customization of Windows Server 2008 guest operating
systems."

Of course... I upgraded to update 3 just yesterday!

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

jonb157 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:06:18 GMT

Last I heard it wasn't going to be fixed until version 4 or vSphere; whatever you want to call it.

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

mrbrown66 — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:53:38 GMT

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if anyone is aware of when Windows 2008 sysprep process will be properly supported through the VI Client?

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

jjgunn — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:06:39 GMT

The VM you are cloning from must be set to Vista. Once the clone completes, power the clone on. Be sure to leave the OS setting in Virtual Center set to Vista on your new clone. The customization will complete. Once ompleted, you will see all your customization intact. You can then shut down the VM and switch it back to Win 2008 in VC.

I'm using ESX 3.5 U2 with VC 2.5 U3 and all customization worked properly with Win 2008 using this method.

Hope this is helpful!

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

mrdenny — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 06:15:00 GMT

I just got done installing ESX 3.5.0 Update 3 and VC 2.5 Update 3 and when I try to deploy a Windows 2008 guest from a template with customization I still get the error. When I switch it to Vista 32bit (it's a 32bit machine) I get an error saying that winVistaGuest isn't supported in this configuration.

Any idea what to try from here?

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

jonb157 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:23:35 GMT

Can someone from VmWare respond to this for us? I'm up to date with the latest versions of ESX and VirtualCenter and still get the error. The workaround does work, although we've had some issues with that too; I'm thinking it has to do with when we use the customization wizard.

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

blckgrffn — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:08:09 GMT

Very curios too. Running vc2.5 U3 and esx 3.5 U3 and still can't deploy 2008 64 bit with the customizatoin wizard. What gives?

We are starting to ramp our transition to 2008 and this needs to be fixed! The Vista work around is quirky and doesn't provide a lot of warm fuzzies...

Thanks,
Nat

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

jadmatrix — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:41:46 GMT

Has this been fixed yet??? We are running VC 2.5U3 and ESX 3.5U2 and it still does not appear to work. Is there a plan to fix this?

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

scerazy — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:40:31 GMT

Yes, it works just fine (as per my message above)

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Mike_Laverick — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:28:13 GMT

I'm out of the office at the moment. On my annual vacation so hopefully I won't be checking my email quite so much as when I am working!

If you need to contact me urgently - then by all means call on my mobile. If you prefer a text message that's fine as well.

I will back to regular access to email on 21st July.

Regards
Mike Laverick
RTFM Education

Contact Details
Landline: +44 (0) 1623 720585
Mobile: +44 (0) 7884 131190
 Think before you print!

This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

sfont3n — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:55:48 GMT

any update to this topic?

trying to clone a 2k8 box and running it through the customization wizard

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

scerazy — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:30:18 GMT

What I noticed is that after W2K8 server is deployed from template (marked as Vista) & customized, the newly created VM must be started & then rebooted again for the changes to actually happen.
On the first boot the customized bits are simply not yet applied.
Second boot & all works fine

Seb

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

5truja — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:50:36 GMT

Sorry this was ment to RickPollock

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Jasemccarty — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:47:10 GMT

Thanks a lot?

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

5truja — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:45:12 GMT

Thanks a lot

5truja

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Jasemccarty — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:40:52 GMT

I'm wondering if something has changed with some of the last round of patches...

Wait a minute... Are you using the customization process in VirtualCenter are you? Or are you running SYSPREP from inside the guest, shutting down the guest, converting it to a template, and then deploying from there?

If that's true, that's not where the issue is. The issue is that currently VC 2.5 (& U1) doesn't allow the use of the Customization Specifications with Windows 2008.

If not, then what's your setup?

Jase McCarty
http://www.jasemccarty.com
Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center
(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

RickPollock — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:40:06 GMT

On the template VM I just ran sysprep and selected shutdown after completed. After the OS shutdown I created a template from that VM. I am able to successfully deploy Windows 2008 Server from this template with the Guest OS set to Windows 2008

Rick

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Jasemccarty — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:17:41 GMT

I didn't have to remove anything.

The SYSPREP process for Vista and Windows 2008 doesn't require any additional files. The required files are included in the installation of Vista or Windows 2008 (inside the guest).

The only issue I have personally witnessed, is that you have to change the OS Type from Windows 2008 to Vista. I will mention that some others have seen some issues (at least it looks that way in some of the posts), but I haven't seen any personally.

Additionally, I don't actively have a requirement for any Windows 2008 boxes, so my success has only been with deploying test systems.

Jase McCarty
http://www.jasemccarty.com
Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center
(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

5truja — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:48:55 GMT

But what did you remove? Did you pick a certain directory or did you remove all files? What is the winning combination in order to be able to have both (w2k3 and w2k8) cutomisation spec working

Thanks in advance

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Jasemccarty — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:16:38 GMT

Mike I might have mispoken... But let me quantify by detailing the files that I have...

Sysprep files are in the standard location:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep

I have the 1.1, 2k, svr2003, & XP loaded with the appropriate sysprep files.

But... I removed them to test my comments.

Even after removing the above mentioned files, I was able to clone a Windows 2008 Server, and customize the settings.

The reason this works, is because the method in which Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are sysprepped, is different than the way Windows 2000/XP/2003 are sysprepped.

Vista and Server 2008 have the sysprep functionality built into the OS.

Here's a link with more information on how the Vista/Server 2008 sysprep process works:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/fd2f79c9-3049-4b8c-bcfd-4e6dc5771ace1033.mspx

Thanks,

Jase

Jase McCarty
http://www.jasemccarty.com

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Mike_Laverick — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:44:15 GMT

mmm, thats funny. I was told by VMware a couple of weeks - to put the vista sysprep files in the 1.1 directory to get sysprep working for vista - specifically related to VDM...

As for W2K8. When I tried that work around it ran sysprep but ignored the customization settings utterly.

I wonder what it is I am doing differently. Where have you put your W2K8 sysprep files in All Users?

Regards
Mike

ps not upgraded to update 1 yet. Maybe that has something to do with it?

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Jasemccarty — Mon, 05 May 2008 02:45:06 GMT

Hey Mike,

Vista doesn't require any sysprep type files to customize a Windows Vista guest.

And the current workaround, is to change the guest type to Vista, from Windows 2008.

I've comfirmed in my environment that this works.

Thanks,

Jase

Jase McCarty
http://www.jasemccarty.com

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Mike_Laverick — Sun, 04 May 2008 20:20:49 GMT

Actually, I spoke to soon... although I got the VMware Image creation - the netbios name remained the same, IP settings did not take affect, and it didn't join the domain.

I think we will be running sysprep manually (like we used to with Vista) until we get offical support...

Regards
Mike

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Mike_Laverick — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:32:32 GMT

I can confirm the same error message...

I found setting the guest OS type to Vista, and then copying the sysprep.exe files from W2K3 allowed the guest customization process to go ahead...

After it completing - I powered of the VM, and set it back to being Windows 2008

Regards
Mike

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

piercelynch — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:14:49 GMT

Probably simply because it is not a support OS for the customisation wizard yet... remember it has only just been released.

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

Garfied — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:18:58 GMT

Hi,

same problem here. Is there any explaination about this kind of issue? I'm looking for it for days but i could not find anything.

Thanks,

Enry

Re: Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

mawillis — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:32:44 GMT

For anyone else with this problem, I am able to work around it for the time being by changing the specified Guest Operating System for the VM in VirtualCenter, from Windows 2008 to Vista. This at least allows me to deploy this windows 2008 server VM from a template. I do not know if there are any side affects to doing this though so would still appreciate any advice on how to fix the original problem.

Thanks.

Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

mawillis — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:12:51 GMT

I am running a Virtual Center 2.5 and ESX server 3 environment. I have just created a new Windows Server 2008 RTM (32bit) Template and would like to deploy using the customization wizard within Virtual Center 2.5. When I get to the customization screen, I see the following message:

"Warning: Customization of the guest operating system 'winLonghornGuest' is not supported in this configuration. Microsoft Vista (TM) and Linux guests with Logical Volume Manager are supported only for recent ESX host and VMware Tools versions."

I have a Vista Template that I am able to use the customization wizard with. Has any body else seen this problem with a Server 2008 template?

Thanks.