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.

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.

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?

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!!

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.

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.

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