How to enable sysprep to deploy XP VM from template?

[romatlo]

ESX 3.5 and Virtual Center 2.5

How to enable sysprep to deploy XP VM from template?

- I have my XP Pro SP3 template created.

- I have extracted and copied the XP Pro sysprep files from my XP SP2 CD to the appropriate All Users\Application Data\vmware\VMware Virtual Center\sysprep\xp folder.

- I created a Customization file using the Customization manager that includes a simple sysprep.inf text pasted into the box available during the wizard.

- I Deploy a new VM from my template and choose the customization file that I created for XP.

- The virtual machine is created ok and powered on, but when I open the console, the first Windows Setup wizard is displayed to go through the mini setup.

It looks like sysprep ran, but is not recognizing my answer file text or something.

I did this same process SUCCESSFULLY using W2K3.

Anyone know what I could be doing wrong with XP?

Sysprep.inf file:

[mittim12]

Have you tried this method with any other versions of XP? I know we do customization with XP SP2 and haven't had any issues yet.

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[romatlo]

Thank you for the reply! I have not tried XP SP2 yet since I was hoping to just get to the latest and go! I will give XP SP2 and try and report back.

[romatlo]

Here is an update.

I tried XP SP2, same process and it works! I did notice that the sysprep.exe file is an updated version in SP3. I updated my sysprep files but it did not make a difference and still failed when deploying from my XP SP3 (upgraded from SP2) template. I am going to try XPSP3 CD, use sysprep files from this CD and see what happens.

Seems like there is a problem some where.

Stay tuned...

[mittim12]

Did you ever get XP SP3 to work correctly?

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[romatlo]

Yes I did. I turned out to be the AClient that I installed on it that was screwing it up. I not sure at this point why AClient was messing it up, but after uninstalling and redeploying from template, it works.

I wish that I new how to name the newly deployed VMs a name range (vdm01,vdm02,vdm03...etc) and join the domain automatically.

Thanks for you help. I will mark the buttons appropriately.

[mittim12]

Glad it's now working. You can use a script that runs on first login that joins the domain for you. I think if you search the forums you might be able to find some post where people have done this. I was a little disappointed that VDM didn't place a 01, 02, 03....... into the name as well.

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