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LividBliss
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

vCAC 6.0 - Windows 2008R2 with vCenter Customization - Never Completes in vCAC

I have a nice WIN2K8R2 blueprint that uses a vCenter customization to Sysprep, join domain, etc.  The VM looks great and every configuration is applied to the VM, but vCAC never receives notification that the customization is complete and stays in the "CustomizeMachine" state, so the VM never reaches available "Items" in vCAC; it can only be seen in Infrastructure > Managed Machines.  It fails after some time but again the VM is perfect, vCAC just doesn't classify it as a completed "Item".  Anyone else having issues with this?

Also, if I remove the Customization Specification from the WIN2K8R2 BP, it completes the build and moves it to available "Items", but will not apply the Network Profile IP configuration with VNXNET3 - it sets the WIN NIC to DHCP (Automatic), which isn't being used.  All my RHEL BP's are able to complete to available "Items" in vCAC with vCenter Customization.

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19 Replies
bdamian
Expert
Expert

Hi LividBliss,

Can you upload a screenshot of the "Properties" page of the Blueprint?

---
Damián Bacalov
vExpert 2017-2023 (7 years)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianbacalov/
https://tecnologiaimasd.blogspot.com/
twitter @bdamian
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LividBliss
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have no properties in the Blueprint, this is strictly using the vCenter Customization Spec:

Pic.JPG

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bdamian
Expert
Expert

Ok. There are two things here.

1) If you just specify the "Customization spec", then it must work. But vCAC will NOT apply the settings from the Network Profile.

I have the same template with Windows 2008 R2 and it works perfectly. First, make sure that you don't have any property defined in vCAC in the Properties tab. The following are my options in the Customization Specification of vCenter (who works for me):

. Computer name -> Use virtual machine name

. Run once -> nothing here.

. Network -> typical settings

. Domain -> all needed info (in my case is just Workgroup)

. Generate New Security Id -> checked

Test it, if it works, you'll see that no vCAC Network Profile configuration is applied.

2) In order to vCAC apply the settings of the Network Profile, you need to add to add a property in vCAC.

. Go to Blueprint -> Build information -> verify the customization spec is ok.

. Go to Blueprint -> Properties -> add the property "VirtualMachine.Network0.ProfileName" value "NetworkProfileName". Notice that the "0" in Network0 is the first network adapter.

This shoud do the trick.

---
Damián Bacalov
vExpert 2017-2023 (7 years)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianbacalov/
https://tecnologiaimasd.blogspot.com/
twitter @bdamian
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LividBliss
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

None of the Properties that I have tried will apply to the provisioned VM (Sysprep, Network, AD Cleanup, etc.).  I installed the guest agent, the GuestAgent service is set to start automatically on the template, and firewall is disabled.

When using just the Customization Specification in vCenter, without any Properties, it does apply the Network Profile for me, but vCenter doesn't signal vCAC that the customization is complete.  All settings get applied but the VM never makes it to "Items" in vCAC.

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bdamian
Expert
Expert

I understand you, it happend to me as well.

But, trying, I get what I've told you in the previous message.

D.

---
Damián Bacalov
vExpert 2017-2023 (7 years)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianbacalov/
https://tecnologiaimasd.blogspot.com/
twitter @bdamian
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WenshengLiu
Contributor
Contributor

hi, LividBliss,

I encountered the same issue before. And here is my solution;

1. Try to install a dhcp server

2. if u dont want to use dhcp, release this blueprint static IP address

3. I never install any GuestAgent in blueprint

4. Make a customization specification through vsphere client.

5. In vcac, create a network profile with IP range, DNS, gateway ,subnet mask...etc

Then try to do a clone again.

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LividBliss
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

This issue was resolved when we stood up a separate vCenter for use by vCAC; the original vCenter was executing commands from vCD and vCAC.

vCloud Director was having service account/LDAP issues.

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Flex85
Contributor
Contributor

Hi LividBliss,

I have the exact same issue in my vCAC environment. However I don't have any vCD Endpoints.

How does a service account used to connect to an Endpoint result in vCAC failing to provision Windows VMs using vCenter Guest Customization?

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LividBliss
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

This issues had nothing to do with Endpoints.

The vCenter was shared by vCD and vCAC as separate application stacks, not integrated products with Endpoints.  Both products were using the same vCenter to provision VMs, building a new vCenter for just vCAC fixed the issue....

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Flex85
Contributor
Contributor

Yes I thought so. Thanks

I have one vCAC environment with just one vCenter Endpoint. Any clues as to what my be causing my issue?

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LividBliss
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

CustomizeMachine state is when Custom Specs in vCenter are applied.  Might trying rebuilding the Custom Spec or verifying it works outside of vCAC.  Is it set to Typical Network?  Did the NIC device start properly and is in the correct VLAN?  Any ghost NICs in the template - Windows or Linux?

CustomizeOS state is when the guest agent calls IaaS.  Does it have the proper cert.pem file in /usr/share/gugent?  Some Linux Guest Agents don't pull the cert from IaaS and it has to be place manually. Can it ping the FQDN of IaaS?

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GrantOrchardVMw
Commander
Commander

Ok, slow down a minute. The most likely cause of your issue is the guest agent.

The only reason to have the guest agent installed is to execute in guest tasks and scripts. If you have a vSphere template with the same OS but no guest agent installed, can you please create a new Blueprint and attempt to provision?

Grant

Grant http://grantorchard.com
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Flex85
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the late response. I've been behind scenes testing based on your responses but have hit a another brick wall!

So I've been testing various scenarios and I've recorded them in a spreadsheet that I've attached. The IT support team in my organisation had created a few Windows 2008 templates which I had been using for my vCAC POC environment. I tested creating a cloned blueprint out of them using various options; using network profiles, attaching the Guest Customization spec etc. As you can see from my spreadsheet, the tests with the Guest Customization spec attached to the Blueprint all caused the provisioning to freeze at the 'CustomizeMachine' stage as I reported earlier. This then led me to question the windows image being used.

Therefore I created a brand new Windows build and tested the Guest Customization spec by manually provisioning a VM from the template in vSphere. It worked fine. I then proceeded to create a Blueprint from the new Windows build. Now here is the issue that has frustrated me since Friday.

I'm trying to create a Blueprint using a Linked Clone. I've deployed a VM from my new Windows template and also taken a Snapshot on it. I then ran a manual inventory data collection on the vSphere agent in order to discover the changes to the VM. However when creating the Blueprint and selecting the Linked Clone VM to use, the snapshot for my new VM is not displayed. The wizard displays '0' snapshots available for the VM! I purposely didn't install the vCAC Windows agent as I wanted to do some more testing on the issue I was facing provisioning VMs. However to test if that was the reason I couldn't see the snapshot in vCAC, I installed and configure the agent on the VM however that didn't work!

I've tried a number of things; ran multiple data collections, created multiple snapshots, restarted the vCAC vSphere agent and service on the IaaS server, adjusted settings of the VM, for example removing the attached CD just to see if that would make a difference, but stTest Results.jpgill no luck.

Any ideas?

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Flex85
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

Small update. I can provision cloned Windows Server 2008 R2 VMs successfully now. Both with and without the Guest Customization specification. The use of Network Profiles on the Network Paths they are being deployed on also works well. Seems the issue was the Windows image provided to me by the support guys in my organisation.

Only issue that remains is the one regarding the Linked clone snapshots not being seen in vCAC. Still can't figure out why!

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LividBliss
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Check image for a ghost NIC that may have a duplicate gateway. Glad its fixed.

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Flex85
Contributor
Contributor

Another update guys. Had a look through some of the logs and found an error in the DEM log.

It seems that the DEM worker attempts to run the ‘vSphereSnapshotInventory’ workflow and fails. Attached are images taken from tje log that detail the errorDEM_Log_1.jpgDEM_Log_2.jpg:

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LividBliss
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Was the snap created in vCAC or in vCenter?

I tried a set of linked cloned once and had to create the snap in the Blueprint, was having problems using snapshots already built through vCenter.

And I am assuming the VM hosting the snap was imported using Infrastructure Organizer, setting the VRMEnabledMachine=True property as seen in the Annotation/Notes of the VM.

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Flex85
Contributor
Contributor

Snapshot was created in vSphere. From what I understand, you can only create a snapshot of the VM if you import the VM into vCAC using the Infrastructure Organizer. When I try to take a snapshot of the VM in the Blueprint creation wizard, it displays a warning message saying it cannot take a snapshot of an unmanaged VM.

However it seems that every time an Inventory Data Collection has been run, the 'vSphereSnapshotInventory' workflow, run by the DEM-worker, fails. I think this has direct correlation to the issue being faced.

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RaymundoEC
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I have exact same issue, what was the issue on this to consider in Windows template used to clone?

my synthoms:

  • Network profile does not work with Windows2012R2 clone method provisioning VM.
  • No works as well using VirtualMachine.Network0.ProfileName.

thanks!

+vRay
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