Domain Join when using a Guest Customization (sysprep)

[admin]

All,

I just started experimenting with using a sysprep Guest Customization with one of my View Pools, and noticed a few things:

Using Vista, View 4.6:

• After the desktops are provisioned and boot up, they now ask me for a computer name.
  
  • They used to get renamed by View Manager.
    
• They also no longer join the domain.
  
  • This used to work too.
    
• After local login, they prompt me to identify the network connection as Home\Work\Public.
  

My guess is that since Sysprep is now handling the customization, View Manager will no longer name the VM's (hostname, not VM name) or join them to the domain.  I have not edited my Sysprep.inf file to have the computers renamed or joined to the domain, I was really hoping to have View Manager handle that.  I want the Virtual Machine "VM names" to match the host name as setup in the OS.

Is it true that I now need to rely on Sysprep to handle all of the above?  It is not super clear in the View Manager Interface.

Thanks,

Drew

[mittim12]

With View 4.6 you can utilize either Sysprep or Quick prep but you have to pick it when you setup the pool.

As far as Sysprep goes you can edit your customization specification in vCenter to determine how you want to name the VM and join the name.   Then you can pick this customization specification in your View pool.   That should accomplish what you are trying to do. 

[admin]

mittim12,

Thanks for the reply.  I understand all that, so I guess I need to rephrase my question.

What is SUPPOSED to happen when using a Sysprep customization?  Is View Manager/Composer supposted to handle the rename / domain join, or is Sysprep supposed to handle it?

Thanks,
Drew

[mittim12]

Sysprep would handle it.

Sent from my iPhone

[mittim12 · Accepted solution]

Sorry I was in the car earlier and couldn't post a lot of detail.   If you were to create a customization specification in vCenter you could choose the option for the name of the guest to match the VM.  You could then set your domain information so that it would join during the sysprep process.     Once your customization is complete you can edit the pool and select that customization.   I've used sysprep a couple of times on a few test pools and it seemed to work fine.   

Let us know how it goes. 

[kgsivan]

The Hostname and IP address configuration of the guest OS (Clones) is what supposed to take from a custom spec during sysprep configuration. Typically in a custom spec Hostname will be set to "User Virtual machine Name"---  By doing this the hostname of the clone will be configured accorning to the Vm-naming pattern mentioned in pool configuration. And  also IP address would be set to DHCP with Custom DNS if required.

The Domain joining will be performed by View composer . During sysprep customization Clones will be joined to the domain those are added in View composer settings and *NOT* to the one which is mentioned in the sysprep file.

Hope this clarifies.

[admin]

Thanks for all of the replies, I will take another look today and respond with any follow-up questions!

Drew

[mittim12]

skj can you just clarify something for my sake.   So when using sysprep in a View environment the domain settings specified in the customization specification are ignored in favor of View composer?  

I only ask this because I had a pool of clones that I did not want joined to the domain.  Since there was no way to handle this with QuickPrep I created a SysPrep pool and specified a customization specification where they would not join the domain.    That worked as I intended but if I understood you correctly they should have still joined the domain through View composer.    Sorry if this is confusing but I just wanted to make sure I understood correctly.

[admin]

All,

Ok - I just realized that when you create a new customization spec in vCenter, certain options disappear once you hit the "import sysprep file".  Some of those options relate to these issues.  It makes sense, I just never noticed that the options disappear when I am importing my custom .INF.

What I will end up doing is creating a new customization, but not import my existing file.  I will test this and let you know when it works.

We have a few organization-specific sysprep options that I want to add in, but I should be able to do that after creating the Customization Specification.

Thanks,

Drew

[admin]

To follow-up, things worked as described.  It is a bit of a mess though.

In our production environment, we use SCCM Task Sequences to deploy clients.  One step of the task sequence applies the Vista_Unattend.XML, and the next step joins the domain.  Therefore, the domain joining parameters are not present in the Vista_Unattend.xml (because they are handled in a separate step NOT in the XML file).

I don't want to simply edit the Vista_Unattend.xml to include the parameters, because then I will be adding the user name and password used to join the domain in plain text (security risk).  In the SCCM task sequence, the credentials are at least stored in a database.

So I can't import my existing Vista_Unattend.XML, because it doesn't include the domain join parameters because SCCM doesn't need them and including them in the XML creates a security risk.

I was also thinking that I could simply create a new Guest Customization and edit the guts of the file to include other parameters from our Vista_Unattend.xml (for example HideWindowsMail).  I can't do this because once I create the Guest Customization in vCenter, I can't edit the file and add custom entries (it is all wizard driven).  I also tried to export the guest customization, edit it, and re-import it.  I can't do that because the XML file is in VMware's format for Guest Customization, not Microsoft's Unattend.XML WAIK format.

So the bottom line is, that I am going to have to use the Guest Customization Wizard to create a new file, then live without the extra customizations present in our Vista_Unattend.XML.  I will have to perform those extra mods via GPO or manually.

Bummer, but thanks for all of the answers.

Drew

[kgsivan]

>>   So when using sysprep in a View environment the domain settings specified in the customization specification are ignored in favor of View composer?

Yes.

While creating an Automated Linked Clone pool we have page to define whether it is sysprep, or quickprep

This is a guest customization page settings. There are three main inputs.

1. Domain (which is defined in View composer)

2. Option for QucikPrep customization <OR> Sysprep Customization

3. Custom spec in case of Sysprep customization

To proceed from this page you must have chosen 1 irrespective of what you have selected for 2 (and 3)

You will not able to create a pool keeping the option 1 blank. And as we know the internal flow It is View Composer who is making the domain membership.

Now let assume that you have selected a Domain here and chosen one custom spec. If the custom spec contains a DNS which cannot resolve the domain selected for option 1 (or if no dns is defined), then it will not join to the domain. So  I doubt , whatever happened when you tried is because of the network/dns configuration in customspec which cannot reach/resolve the selected domain in pool creation wizard.

[mittim12]

How quickly one can forget something. I now remember going through this exercise. I ended up switching from clones to full desktops for this one project.

Thanks for the follow up.

Sent from my iPhone

[admin]

Yeah -- it is kind of messy.  I am going to stay the course right now and implement two pools (one for Linked Clones and one for full VM's), until I hit a hurdle that is completely unpassable.

Thanks for all of the information!

Drew

[charvoworld]

heya Follow steps for domain adding info charvo cloud: Vmware view Sysprep customization steps you can create desktop in domain or workgroup also. check the snapshot listed in link, you will where options are available