Windows 10 Pro 1803 Customization Question - Error occurred setting up network properties

[MSchaff]

Hello everyone,

I'm testing a customization script for a Windows 10 baseline image.  I've modified the baseline image, then ran Sysprep on it with the Generalize + Shut down options.  I cloned the image to a template, and created a VM from the template.  I'm deploying the VM in an ESXi 6.0 environment, with vCenter 6.5 U2.  The baseline image is using build 1803, with a VMXNET 3 network interface.

The customization script is pretty simple; it does the following tasks:

1. Sets the Organization Name and Employee Name

2. Sets the Computer name to FullVDI (and appends an incremental suffix)

3. Sets the administrative password to blank

4. Sets the time zone

5. Creates a new SSID

However, when the script runs, I'm seeing the following event:

05/15/2018, 2:03:12 PM

User:User

Type:Error

Target: VDI Test 9x

Description:

05/15/2018, 2:03:12 PM

• An error occurred while setting up network properties of the guest OS. See the log file C:/Windows/TEMP/vmware-imc/guestcust.log in the guest OS for details.

  Event Type Description:The customization scripts failed to set the parameters in the corresponding configuration files for Linux or in the Windows registry

  Possible Causes:
  • The Customization Specification contains an invalid host name or domain name Action: Provide a valid host name for the target guest operating system. The name must comply with the host name and domain name definitions in RFC 952, 1035, 1123, 2181.
  • Could not find a NIC with the MAC address specified in the Customization Package Action: Confirm that there was no change in the virtual NIC MAC address between the creation of the Customization Package and its deployment. Deployment occurs during the first boot of the virtual machine after customization has been scheduled.
  • The customization code needs read/write permissions for certain configuration files. These permissions were not granted to the 'root' account on Linux or to the account used by the VMware Tools Service on the Windows guest operating system. Action: Grant read/write permissions to the 'root' account for Linux or to the account used by the VMware Tools Service on the Windows guest operating system and the registry keys that need to be modified by the customization code

  Related events:

  There are no related events.

The last few lines of the guestcust.log are as follows:

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:              GuestCustUtilLib:  DEBUG] Got BootExecute from session mgr.

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:              GuestCustUtilLib:  DEBUG] Native App sysprepDecrypter.exe, arguments ''

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:              GuestCustUtilLib:  DEBUG] Copied file sysprepDecrypter.exe to C:\Windows\system32\sysprepDecrypter.exe

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:              GuestCustUtilLib:  DEBUG] Updated boot execute value.

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:              GuestCustUtilLib:  DEBUG] Successfully opened key SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\Guest Customization\

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:              GuestCustUtilLib:  DEBUG] New boot execute:

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:              GuestCustUtilLib:  DEBUG] autocheck autochk *

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:              GuestCustUtilLib:  DEBUG] System32\vmware-svi-nga.exe

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:              GuestCustUtilLib:  DEBUG] sysprepDecrypter.exe

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:                              :  DEBUG] Temporary sysprep dir path: C:\sysprep

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:                              :  DEBUG] Copying file/directory from 'sysprep' to 'C:\sysprep'

[2018-05-15T14:03:11:                              :  DEBUG] select * from win32_networkadapter where Manufacturer != 'Microsoft' and ServiceName != 'VMnetAdapter' and  manufacturer is not null and MACAddress is not null

[2018-05-15T14:03:12:                              :  DEBUG] Found 0 objects. Pointer 0. return code -2147217398(0x8004100a)

[2018-05-15T14:03:12:                              :  DEBUG] Rpci: Sending request='deployPkg.update.state 4 101 C:/Windows/TEMP/vmware-imc/guestcust.log@WinMgmt : '

[2018-05-15T14:03:12:                              :  DEBUG] Rpci: Sent request='deployPkg.update.state 4 101 C:/Windows/TEMP/vmware-imc/guestcust.log@WinMgmt : ', reply='', len=0, status=1

[2018-05-15T14:03:12:                 GuestCustUtil:  DEBUG] Status marker file C:/Windows/.post-gc-status doesn't exist

[2018-05-15T14:03:12:                              :  ERROR] error number 8004100a, WinMgmt :

[2018-05-15T14:03:12:                              :   INFO] GuestCustUtil exiting.

I've attached the full guestcust.log (it isn't very long) for reference.

I'm wondering if anyone has seen this before, and if there is a solution to it.  The network adapter exists in the deployed VM, so I'm not at all sure why it isn't being detected.  Since the customization script doesn't find the network interface, none of the customizations in the script actually get applied.  Any insights on this (and suggestions to resolve it)  would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[BenFB]

This may be a different issues but 1803 is not officially supported yet.

Keep en eye on this KB for when new versions of Windows 10 are supported along with any caveats.

Supported versions of Windows 10 on Horizon Agent Including All VDI Clones (Full Clones, Instant Clo...

This is an overview of how VMware is going to deliver support for each new Windows 10 release.

Windows 10 Guest OS support FAQ for Horizon 7.x and 6.x (51663)

[MSchaff]

Ben,

Thanks for the suggestion on this.  Following your lead, I built a new baseline VM using the 1703 build Windows 10 Pro.  Interestingly, when I deploy a VM based on that template, I get identical results.  Very strange.

Any other suggestions on possible sources of this type of problem?

Mitchell

[dbrutus]

Hi, you mentioned that you run sysprep with generalize and shutdown. Is there a specific reason why you initially need to run sysprep? Have you tried testing customization without syspreping the base image? When you run customization, you essentially sysprep again.

[MSchaff]

Excellent question.  My test templates so far have included the Sysprep step, as most the blog posts I've read have included it as their last step of creating the templates.  The Horizon 7 guide also mentions running it.  I'll definitely try creating a template without running Sysprep, and see what the results of that are.  Thanks for the suggestion!

[npeter]

I'm encountering similar issue, what I notice is that network adapter is in dis-connected state for the VM under customization. Have found a fix for this issue? 1709 build, I get into this state only if I add NVIDIA GRID to the VM. it works perfectly without graphics card.