Solved: Re: VMware View Linked Clone pool - Change SID of ...

DukeR · ‎07-21-2015

Dear community

This morning I've had the great idea to use sysprep instead of quickprep to change the SID for all VMs within the linked clone pools. Why? Because the customer only does have VMs and he uses KMS to activate Office and Windows so we need at least 50 different SIDs. Well I've created a Guest OS Customization file for Windows (OS is Windows 7) within vCenter (which is connected to View admin) and I did:

Target Virutal Machine OS: Windows

Use Custom Sysprep Answer File: No

Name: Name of the file

Owners Name: xy

Owner Organization: xy

dfgdfg

VM Name: Use the virutal machine name

Productkey: Leave blank

Admin Password: Set twice

ZimeZone: GMT+1

Run Once: None

Network: Typical with DHCP

Domain: Customer Domain incl. Credentials

OS Options: Create new SID

Finish, went to View Admin created a new pool and set Guest Cust. to Syprep (Filename). Recomposed the pool and it worked fine until the generalization starts... it stucks at Regional Settings, when i reboot the same. When i klick net it asks me for a Computername and for a password.

Well:

1) Why is it stucking there? Further yes it has to stuck because i was not able to specify regional settings or is it not required? Why does it pop up then?

2) Why is it asking me for a Computername? I told him use existing one.

3) Why is it asking me for a Password? I told him what to use.

Well I toigh ok let's use a sysprep answwer file which I've included in a second guest cost. file (withi the guest in addition reset SID). Well this works greate except of the naming: I told him in the answerfile to use the %computername% variable which is for sure the master name, so VDI does not change that name.....

1) Would the sysprep answer file the rightway anyway?

2) How will i get the new name out of View for the VM for exmaple VM001 instead of Master001

See therefore the unattend.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<OOBE>

</OOBE>

</component>

</component>

</settings>

</component>

</component>

</settings>

<ComputerName>%COMPUTERNAME%</ComputerName>

<CopyProfile>false</CopyProfile>

</component>

<Domain>DOMAIN</Domain>

</Credentials>

<JoinDomain>DOMAIN</JoinDomain>

<UnsecureJoin>False</UnsecureJoin>

</Identification>

</component>

</settings>

<cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog:c:/win7x86/extract/sources/install_windows 7 ultimate.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />

</unattend>

If i check the guest cust. file without sysprep answer file i see that there are function which can crreate names for the VMs like vim.virtualmachinenamegenerator (or something like that) is that possible to use in sysprep as well? Well at the end I just want to change the SID of the VMs each time they getting recomposed to have enough unique SID in the network! How do I need to achieve this?

Best regards,

cH1LL1 · ‎07-22-2015

Duke is your main reason for using sysprep to get around the SIDS issue ?

We only use VDI on site for 700+ users and windows 7 clients and Office 2010 is being activated via KMS.and we use quickprep because its headache free and simple.

I use the following to assist with the SIDS issue:

Manually Increase KMS Count | Think Digital the application is clean.

Its explained very well in the link above.

View solution in original post

SanjaySP1 · ‎07-21-2015

Hi,

May I know if you had a chance to check setuperr.log & setupact.log

Check these locations for Windows Vista, Windows 7/8, Windows Server 2008/2008 R2/2012:

C:\Windows\Panther
C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC
C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\Panther

DukeR · ‎07-21-2015

I will check this asap. May I ask you if you could response to the questions above so that I am able to understand the behavior of the process?

Thank you

DukeR · ‎07-21-2015

C:\Windows\Panther\setuperr.log is empty
C:\Windows\Panther\setupact.log:

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [0x0601c1] IBS InstallWindows:Install Path = C:\Windows\system32\oobe

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [0x0601c2] IBS InstallWindows:Setup Phase = 4

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [setup.exe] OrchestrateUpdateImageState: Updating image state from [IMAGE_STATE_GENERALIZE_RESEAL_TO_OOBE] --> [IMAGE_STATE_UNDEPLOYABLE]

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [0x0601ee] IBS PrepareSetupForFirstBootPhase:Working directory is [C:\Windows\Panther]; we are starting an installation

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info IBS PrepareSetupForFirstBootPhase:Passed drive-letter assignment sanity check.

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [0x0601cc] IBS InstallWindows:Performing a new install from first boot phase. Working directory = C:\Windows\Panther

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [0x0601ce] IBS Setup has started phase 4 at 2015-07-22 08:40:16

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [0x0601cf] IBS Install source is C:\Windows\system32\oobe

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [0x0601d0] IBS Build version is 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [0x064042] IBSLIB CreateSetupBlackboard:Creating new blackboard path is [C:\Windows\Panther\SetupInfo] Setup phase is [4]

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [0x090008] PANTHR CBlackboard::Open: C:\Windows\Panther\SetupInfo succeeded.

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [0x064043] IBSLIB CreateSetupBlackboard:Successfully created/opened Setup black board path is [C:\Windows\Panther\SetupInfo]

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info IBS InstallWindows:No UI language from a previous boot was found on the blackboard. Using selected language [].

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info IBS InstallWindows:Setup architecture is [x86]

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info [0x0601d5] IBS InstallWindows:Starting with Empty Queue. Setup Phase = 4

2015-07-22 08:40:16, Info PANTHR InitializedCriticalSection for pExecQueue->csLock;