Server 2008R2 customization

[mrudloff]

While the documentation mentions how to create a sysprep for guests pre-2008, it doesn't say anything about 2008R2 and I just deployed a 2008R2 guest with no customization possible. It seems to name the server correctly, but settings such as administrator password and networking. Even the SID is the same.

I then found in the background a popup saying that a fatal error occured while trying to sysprep ...

Any suggestions ?

[admin]

The only thing that vCD and vSphere for that matter require to do guest customization on 2008R2 is that the VMware tools are installed and they are the latest version to the hosts the guest is running on.  It the tools are up to date and installed when the vApp template is deployed all customization should work fine.  Ensure the tools are not only there, BUT they are the version matching the hosts in your vCD compute cluster.

Some folks have imported a VM from vCenter that may have had dated tools on the VM compared to what the new vCD cluster is running so customization would fail.

[mrudloff]

Chris Colotti wrote:

The only thing that vCD and vSphere for that matter require to do guest customization on 2008R2 is that the VMware tools are installed and they are the latest version to the hosts the guest is running on.  It the tools are up to date and installed when the vApp template is deployed all customization should work fine.  Ensure the tools are not only there, BUT they are the version matching the hosts in your vCD compute cluster.

Some folks have imported a VM from vCenter that may have had dated tools on the VM compared to what the new vCD cluster is running so customization would fail.

This is a brand new setup with the VM being imported from the same hosts the vcloud director setup is running on ... The hosts, vcd , vmware tools etc. are all up to date ....

[admin]

Any way to grab the fatal error message or was that all it said?  I have not seen a 2008R2 customization fail at all in my lab or at customer sites, so this has me interested.

[mrudloff]

Already deleted the VM, but this is all it says (googled it) :

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/8f5002e1-95b4-47bf-b031-4b72b...

Same error basically ....

Found this, but that is not our problem as this was a fresh VM which was imported to VCD

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=102663...

[admin]

Wow.  Windows Media process on 2008R2?  I would expect that on a Windows 7 VM.  Is that really running on your 2008R2 VM?

[mrudloff]

Oh yes

Like I say - it is just a googled image but the same error ... I'll import / force customization again to show the error properly

[mrudloff]

There you go  

[admin]

That looks like the re-arm issue, but you said it was a new install.  Interesting.

Can you open up a Case with GSS to see if there is any new known issue with 1.5 that maybe we have not seen yet?

[mrudloff]

Chris Colotti wrote:

Can you open up a Case with GSS to see if there is any new known issue with 1.5 that maybe we have not seen yet?

Sounds like a painful idea ... at least based on my experience

Might do that if we see the same issues on our production setup (should be done in a couple of weeks)