Solved: Re: New-VM with OSCustomizationSpec, Error "A spec...

LittleNickey · ‎07-14-2014

I am making a script where I read a CSV-file with parameters to deploy multiple VMs. Now I've added functionality to get it to do sysprep with the help of OSCustomizationSpec and when I tested it was working fine. After that I made some minor modifications, such as added "-ResourcePool" and some other things I can't quite remember unfortunately. Or at least I thought they were minor changes that should affect anything negatively, but when I now run it I get error "A specified parameter was not correct". I found this thread saying it was a bug in older version but that should've been fixed. I tried the workaround but I do get the same error still. The script runs fine when I remove the "-OSCustomizationSpec" parameter, but there seems to be nothing wrong with the file as I can manually deploy VMs with the OSCust file from the GUI and with the same templates. And as I said, it worked fine earlier when I used that parameter. Any ideas on which "parameter" that is incorrect?

PSVersion: 4.0

PowerCLI Version: VMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.5 Release 2 build 1671586

The script throws error:

New-VM : 2014-07-14 10:13:13 New-VM The operation for the entity "Template" failed with the following message: "A specified parameter was not correct. spec.identity.userData.computerName"

At script.ps1:141 char:6

+ New-VM -Template $Template `

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [New-VM], InvalidArgument

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Client20_TaskServiceImpl_CheckServerSideTaskUpdates_OperationFailed,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.NewVM

And in the GUI:

Task: Clone virtual machine

Status: A specified parameter was not correct. spec.identity.userData.computerName

Below is the part of the script regarding New-VM and OSCust:

New-OSCustomizationSpec -Name "PowerCLI" `

-AdminPassword "password" `

-AutoLogonCount 0 `

-ChangeSID:$True `

-Confirm:$False `

-DeleteAccounts:$False `

-Description "Only for use with PowerCLI." `

-FullName $Customer `

-LicenseMode "NotSpecified" `

-NamingScheme "Fixed" `

-NamingPrefix $VMName `

-OrgName $Customer `

-OSType "Windows" `

-TimeZone 110 `

-Type "Persistent" `

-Workgroup "WORKGROUP" | Out-Null

New-VM -Template $Template `

-Name $VMName `

-VMHost $VMHost `

-Datastore $Datastore `

-Location $Folder `

-ResourcePool $ResourcePool `

-OSCustomizationSpec PowerCLI | Out-Null

-- Oskar

LittleNickey · ‎07-14-2014

Damn I'm stupid, I do believe it is Monday today! :smileyangry:

Just like you figured, it has something to do with the computer name.

"spec.identity.userData.computerName"

Or more specifically "-NamingPrefix $row.Name". Since this is the NETBIOS name which may only contain letters, numbers and hyphens.

As previously stated I'm stupid. I had $row.Name defined as "nickey_test01", and underscore isn't an allowed character. This explains why the script worked earlier when I created customer VM's. Guess I'll have to build in more checks in the script, to idiot proof it.

Cheers for the help Luc.

-- Oskar

View solution in original post

LucD · ‎07-14-2014

The Template parameter expects a String with the name of the template, or a Template object (as returned by Get-Template).

According to the error the value you pass is neither of these.

How did you populate the $Template variable ?

Blog: lucd.info Twitter: @LucD22 Co-author PowerCLI Reference

LittleNickey · ‎07-14-2014

Thanks Luc for the quick reply as usual.

I too figured it might have something to do with that, but when I try fetching the template manually it works fine...

Here is how the script populates $Template:

$Filename = ".\NewVM.csv"

foreach($row in Import-Csv $Filename -UseCulture){

(...)

$Template = Get-Template -Name $row.Template

## And some more variables related to the Template

$ViewTemplate = Get-View -id $Template.id

$TemplateCPU = $ViewTemplate.config.hardware.numcpu

$TemplateMem = ($ViewTemplate.config.hardware.memorymb / 1024)

$TemplateOS = $ViewTemplate.config.guestid

$DiskSize = Get-HardDisk -Template $Template | Select-Object -ExpandProperty CapacityGB | Measure-Object -Sum | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Sum

$ResourcePool = Get-Cluster $row.Cluster | Get-ResourcePool $row.ResourcePool

(...)

}

When running just the above code and not the rest of the script PowerCLI fetches all the parameters correctly and finds the Template.

-- Oskar

LucD · ‎07-14-2014

I suspect you might be overwriting the content of the $Template variable somewhere.

You could display the content of the $Template variable just before you do the New-VM.

And perhaps also check the type.

Write-Output $Template

$Template.GetType()

$Template | Get-Member

Blog: lucd.info Twitter: @LucD22 Co-author PowerCLI Reference

LittleNickey · ‎07-14-2014

It only gives me output for 1 template:

## Write-Output $Template

Name

----

WIN2012_R2_STD_template

## $Template.GetType()

Module : VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.dll

Assembly : VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl, Version=5.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null

TypeHandle : System.RuntimeTypeHandle

DeclaringMethod :

BaseType : VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.InventoryItemImpl

UnderlyingSystemType : VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.TemplateImpl

FullName : VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.TemplateImpl

AssemblyQualifiedName : VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.TemplateImpl, VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl, Version=5.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null

Namespace : VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory

GUID : bdfb3c64-a617-3970-850f-f51d784bee4e

IsEnum : False

GenericParameterAttributes :

IsSecurityCritical : False

IsSecuritySafeCritical : False

IsSecurityTransparent : True

IsGenericTypeDefinition : False

IsGenericParameter : False

GenericParameterPosition :

IsGenericType : False

IsConstructedGenericType : False

ContainsGenericParameters : False

StructLayoutAttribute : System.Runtime.InteropServices.StructLayoutAttribute

Name : TemplateImpl

MemberType : TypeInfo

DeclaringType :

ReflectedType :

MetadataToken : 33554721

GenericTypeParameters : {}

DeclaredConstructors : {Void .cctor(), Void .ctor(System.String), Void .c

tor(System.String, System.String), Void .ctor(Syst

em.String, System.String, System.String, System.St

ring, System.String[], VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore

.Impl.V1.VimClient, System.Collections.Generic.Dic

tionary`2[System.String,System.String], VMware.Vim

.VirtualMachine)}

DeclaredEvents : {}

DeclaredFields : {_isInitialized, _hostId, _folderId, _datastoreIdList...}

DeclaredMembers : {VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.Tem

plateImpl Create(VMware.Vim.ManagedObjectReference

, VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.VimClient, S

ystem.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.Stri

ng,System.Object], System.Collections.Generic.Dict

ionary`2[System.String,System.String], System.Obje

ct), VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.ManagedCl

assInfo get_ClassInfo(), System.String VMware.VimA

utomation.ViCore.Interop.V1.Inventory.TemplateInte

rop.get_HostId(), System.String get_FolderId()...}

DeclaredMethods : {VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.Inventory.Tem

plateImpl Create(VMware.Vim.ManagedObjectReference

, VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.VimClient, S

ystem.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.Stri

ng,System.Object], System.Collections.Generic.Dict

ionary`2[System.String,System.String], System.Obje

ct), VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.ManagedCl

assInfo get_ClassInfo(), System.String VMware.VimA

utomation.ViCore.Interop.V1.Inventory.TemplateInte

rop.get_HostId(), System.String get_FolderId()...}

DeclaredNestedTypes : {}

DeclaredProperties : {VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Impl.V1.ManagedClassI

nfo ClassInfo, System.String VMware.VimAutomation.

ViCore.Interop.V1.Inventory.TemplateInterop.HostId

, System.String FolderId, System.String[] Datastor

eIdList}

ImplementedInterfaces : {VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk.Types.V1.VIObject, VMwar

e.VimAutomation.Sdk.Types.V1.VIObjectCore, VMware.

VimAutomation.Sdk.Types.V1.NamedObject, VMware.Vim

Automation.ViCore.Interop.V1.VIObjectInterop...}

TypeInitializer : Void .cctor()

IsNested : False

Attributes : AutoLayout, AnsiClass, Class, Public

IsVisible : True

IsNotPublic : False

IsPublic : True

IsNestedPublic : False

IsNestedPrivate : False

IsNestedFamily : False

IsNestedAssembly : False

IsNestedFamANDAssem : False

IsNestedFamORAssem : False

IsAutoLayout : True

IsLayoutSequential : False

IsExplicitLayout : False

IsClass : True

IsInterface : False

IsValueType : False

IsAbstract : False

IsSealed : False

IsSpecialName : False

IsImport : False

IsSerializable : False

IsAnsiClass : True

IsUnicodeClass : False

IsAutoClass : False

IsArray : False

IsByRef : False

IsPointer : False

IsPrimitive : False

IsCOMObject : False

HasElementType : False

IsContextful : False

IsMarshalByRef : False

GenericTypeArguments : {}

CustomAttributes : {}

## $Template | Get-Member