template customization / sysprep not working

[peccott]

We have recently upgraded from VC2.02 to VC2.5u3.

Following the upgrade our template deployments with customization specifications were working OK for about a week, however for some unknown reason deployments have now started to fail at the sysprep stage, here's what happens:

1. I deploy a new VM using as existing template and customization specification for either windows XP or server 2003 (both of these are known good templates)

2. The new VM gets created OK

3. The new VM restarts and boots to the Windows mini-setup program

4. At this stage you would expect the sysprep answer file (created from the customization specification) to be read and the mini-setup to complete, however this is not happening and the VM is just waiting at the mini setup welcome screen. Upon investigation it would appear that the answer file (C:\sysprep\sysprep.inf) has not been created. I can complete the setup wizard manually and the VM build completes, however I cannot get the build to complete in an automated manor as it should.

Like I say, this was working and has suddenly stopped for all templates except for one !! It is also occurring on newly created templates !

Here's what I have tried so far....

- Updated all sysprep files on the VC to the recent/correct version

- Removed and reinstalled VM Tools from the templates

- Created a new template - problem persists

- Recreated customization specifications - problem persists

- Tried deployment from various different hosts/clusters - problem persists

I have one template that does work, however even if I deploy from this and create a new template, the new template fails. However if I copy the working template using converter (but do not customize it) the copy still works.

Has anyone out there experienced such problems?

Any advice/input greatly appeciated - this is becoming exteremely frustrating...!

Thanks in advance,

P.S - I also have a VMware support call open for this.

[Jujo]

I am having this problem as well. I've been having longer than you. In my environment sysprep stop working one day, then just starting working again after a week or so. I have no idea why. I didn't change anything and everything I tried failed, same as your experience. The template continued to work for several weeks and just today the template is failing again- out of the blue, for no apparent reason.

Please tell us- did you get a response from VM Ware support on this?

[RParker]

Well the simplest fix is the one most often overlooked, it's the version of sysprep you are using. Find a Windows 2003 R2 SP1 Disk. Extract the sysprep tools from that disk and overwrite your versions of EVERY folder you have, with that version of sysprep.

Then try it again. I found out that some Windows versions have newer components, and the newest sysprep will work fine with all the latest Windows versions.

[peccott]

Hi there,

In ou case the problem was definetly not related to the sysprep version - this was one of the first things we checked.

Without getting too bogged down with the unexplained causes of the problem I was able to resolve it in the following way:

- For the 2003 server based templates recreating the template without installing McAfee VirusScan resolved the problem (I now install this using a post deployment script)

- For the XP templates removing the altitis client software resolved the problem

If anyone out there is experiencing simular problems and has these components installed on their templates I will be happy to supply further details of my findings (even if they do not make too much sense!)

In summary the customization of my templates was failing because the sysprep,.inf file was not being copied to the VM, removing the components details above appeared to resove this, but I am not convinced that they were the underlying cause of the problem !

VMware support are still investigating !

[Jujo]

Wow!! VM Ware still hasn't come up with a fix? It's been over 2 weeks. It seems this is a flaw within VC 2.5u3. We never had this problem before upgrading to 2.5u3.

When did you last hear from VM Ware support on this issue?

[RParker]

In summary the customization of my templates was failing because the sysprep,.inf file was not being copied to the VM, removing the components details above appeared to resove this, but I am not convinced that they were the underlying cause of the problem !

Ah good, I vaguely remember that someone else posted a kb article that it's a known issue for Antivirus, but I thought it was for Windows Vista deploy. So maybe this is still an issue with certain Antivirus products. But I am pretty sure it's in the release notes, that antivirus will interfere with certain templates.

That's probably the response you will get from VM Ware.

[Jujo]

FYI

********McAfee- our has never included McAfee (our any antivirus software) and we've still had the problem. So I don't think McAfee is the root of the issue.

[Kevin_Smith]

It could be the encryption of the administrator password used for the login to the template VM.

You could try exporting amending the XML ( to use a plaintext password as below ) and importing to see if this resolves the issue.

[peccott]

Unfortunately the problem still occurred when using a sysprep answer file with a plain text password !

Regarding the AV issue I too am not convinced this is the root cause, however I do now have a sitauation whereby if I install McAfee on an existing template it stops working !

Interestingly VMware support referred me to a 'best practices' guide for templates ()

which recommends that AV software is installed on templates and updated periodically (though this is quite an old doc - VC2!)

[Jujo]

Well yesterday the sysprep wasn't working at all for me as noted. So I decided to reboot my virtual center server to see if that fixed it. It didn't, but after the reboot sysprep only required me to fill in the administrator password...everything else was already done!! Wow, this is trippy. So the answer file is obviously there...but sysprep didn't read the whole file?

[peccott]

I appear to have found the cause of my problem, at least for the XP TEMPLATE anyway.

If you have an XP Template with the Altiris client installed, and the client is pointing at a Altiris deployment server which is set to use a dynamic port for file transfers then the VM customization fails. There would appear to be a conflict between this and the process that VC uses to transfer the customization files to the VM.

If the above configuration is in place then the resolution is to either:

1. Change the client/server file transfer port setting on the deployment server from 0 (dynamically assigned) to a static port number (I am using 4300)

or

2. Disable the Altiris client service on the template and add a guirunonce script to your sysprep customization to re-enable it following customization

Interestingly the above does not appear to apply to server 2003 templates, i.e. the customization works for 2003 templates with the altiris client installed and the deployment server using dynamic ports for file transfers.

Note that it is the file transfer port (set under global options on the altiris deployment server) that I am referring to and not the altiris client port (default 402).

I have relayed these finding to VMware support who are keen to investigate this further !

With regards to my 2003 template failing, the above findings lead me to think that the AV installation (which includes an access protection component) could have been causing a similar conflict with regards to the use of a dynamic port, unfortunately though I no longer have a template to test this with!

Well yesterday the sysprep wasn't working at all for me as noted. So I decided to reboot my virtual center server to see if that fixed it. It didn't, but after the reboot sysprep only required me to fill in the administrator password...everything else was already done!! Wow, this is trippy. So the answer file is obviously there...but sysprep didn't read the whole file?

Jujo - Not sure of your environment, but worth noting that if you have upgraded your VC or imported your customization specifications from another VC then you will need to edit your specifications and reenter the administrator passwords. This seems to reset the encryption and prevent the error within the mini-setup!

Rgds,

Phil

[mickey_nz]

Anyone have definite confirmation from VMWare what the problem is?

[timcarleton]

Nice catch Phil, this was exactly our issue! I've changed our template's Altiris client's state to manual and added "sc config aclient start= auto" and "sc start aclient" to the runonce and its working.

[charvoworld]

Try creating sysprep manually.. follow this steps charvo cloud: Vmware view Sysprep customization steps to create sysprep file