Win 10 - No IP Address after succesful provision

[cegjd]

ESXi 5.5

vRA
7.3

Multi Tenant

I have an issue with Win 10 v1803 in vRA. It is not assigning an IP and is instead picking up APIPA 169.x.x.x address.

We use VMWare Guest customisation scripts to set the hostname and IP.

I have had this issue previously and normally do the following:

Delete the NIC and regkeys.

Upgrade VMTools

Turn down the aggressiveness of DRS

Sysprep – check Win10 isn’t failing on a package

These have all resolved in the past.

Previously the VM would never finish provisioning, it would eventually fail and delete. These VMs are completing as successful – they just don’t have the IP.

We have Win 7 images and W10v1607 images creating fine. The VMWare guest customisation script is an old one and works fine for other templates. It is set
to prompt for IP. vRA should then pass the next IP at provisioning.

I have tried all of the usual tricks above plus:

New VMWare Cust scripts.

Testing network profiles from other tenants

Testing the same template in other tenants

Recreating the Win10 template

Rebooting IAAS and Appliance

Set a static IP in the blueprint – this works

Set a static IP in the cust script and provision a VM direct in VMWare – this works.

It seems that the script is working. The VM is provisioned. My only issue is that it will not pick up an IP via DHCP (direct from vRA – there is no DHCP server).

I have on/off issues with v1709 too however that works in some tenants. V1803 I cannot get too work anywhere.

Help!

Couple of things to add......

We have an old instance that we are migrating from. VRA 6.3.4. I have created blueprints for v1803 and it worked on there.

I have also tested Win10 v1709 on vRA 7.2 - worked on one tenant, failed on another tenant (Same blueprint, only difference is the network profiles)

So as it stands. Win10 (any version) fails on some tenants but v1709 works on one tenant.

[daphnissov]

I don't know for sure that 1803 is supported under vSphere 5.5 or technically vRA 7.2. You may want to open a case and ask GSS because I can't find anything concrete other than support for general Windows 10.

[cegjd]

Couple of things to add......

We have an old instance that we are migrating from. VRA 6.3.4. I have created blueprints for v1803 and it worked on there.

I have also tested Win10 v1709 on vRA 7.2 - worked on one tenant, failed on another tenant (Same blueprint, only difference is the network profiles)

So as it stands. Win10 (any version) fails on some tenants but v1709 works on one tenant.

[cegjd]

whoops, should also add its vRA 7.3

However everything I need to do that is failing - works on our old 6.3.4 instance

[daphnissov]

Can you deploy from that template manually using the same vCenter customization spec and assign the hostname, IP successfully?

[cegjd]

hi daphnissov

Yes I can. I'm limited to static IPs as there is no DHCP server. However I can build using same guest script - change hostname and assign static IP from both VMWare manually and also by changing the blueprint to use a static IP.

the issue appears to be when using a network profile / DHCP

[daphnissov]

I'm unclear. You say you aren't using DHCP. A network profile in vRA isn't DHCP, it's a static IP that is handed out by vRA's internal IPAM. Can you show screenshots of your blueprint and network profile?

[cegjd]

You have just triggered a lightbulb moment, and unsurprisingly it may be my fault.....

I had to remove the network component of the network profile and readd it as it hadn't updated to reflect previous changes.

I also changed the assignment type to static. I had it set to DHCP. I don't think this was an option on the older version so my bad!

[daphnissov · Accepted solution]

That's basically what I was driving at and I wanted to see how you had things set up. I've seen people do this before unaware of what vRA is expecting to do. If you assign a network profile using a static network on the canvas, you should be using a static IP. You can always leave this up to the reservation to figure out, but in both cases DHCP is not a network profile assignment.

[cegjd]

Thankyou for your help. I'm still not sure its logical....but it works

If you set Assignment type to static....but leave the static IP blank, then IPAM works and dishes out an IP out of the specified range.

If you set Assignment type to DHCP....then it does nothing.

I wrongly assumed IPAM works a little like DHCP so was using that option.