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jimm_chen
Contributor
Contributor

CentOS 8 and VMware Customization Specification

I'm trying to create a gold template for provisioning guests from using current version of CentOS 8, however, VMware Customzation Specification seems to be just completely broken for it. I have the latest version of open-vm-tools and perl packages installed. If I try to customize the OS and give it the network configuration, the VM starts up without hostname being changed (to the VM name) and the NIC has no IP at all. What am I missing? I'm also using EFI boot, which is recommended for CentOS 8.

Here are the environment information:

- ESXi 6.7u3

- vCenter 6.7u3

- CentOS 8.0.1905

- open-vm-tools 10.3.0-2.el8

- perl 5.26.3-416.el8

9 Replies
kallischlauch
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

not an answer but I'm facing the same problem (i dont have perl installed, so need to fix that first).
just to troubleshoot:
in deployed VM check the end of the file: /var/log/vmware-imc/toolsDeployPkg.log


in my case it was something like this:pastedImage_0.png

when you copy/paste this into terminal it should run the customziation or error. In my case it failed for missing perl. I'd try that (i'll try and list dthe issues I'm having)

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sharptonm
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I was facing this same hell.  The NIC was showing as not connected and the cust spec was failing.  In the log, you may see errors like the attachment.  Simply install perl and this package and things are working for me now.  Best of luck.  This really should be a required RPM for the open-vm-tools to install. 

perl-File-Temp-0.230.600-1.el8.noarch

Mike

jimm_chen
Contributor
Contributor

I have latest open-vm-tools, perl (and perl-File-Temp) installed already. However, the VM deployed from the template would boot up without NIC connected. Though if I convert the template back to VM and boot it up, it comes up just fine with NIC. This is completely bizzare. Furthermore, changing the NIC to connected for the VM deployed off the template yields an error "Invalid configuration for device '0'."

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gcikulbe
Contributor
Contributor

We're seeing this same issue here on both RHEL 8.x and CentOS 8.x.

This is killing our efforts to move to newer releases.

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ludo_sco
Contributor
Contributor

Did you install cloud-init package ?

gcikulbe
Contributor
Contributor

Why would that package make a difference?

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ludo_sco
Contributor
Contributor

This package makes a difference because it's used by VMware customization.

Can you post vm customization log here ?

tekerjerbs
Contributor
Contributor

thanks, cloud-init was the missing package for me. thought once deployPkg wasn't required anymore we'd be done with this stuff but i guess not

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diSabler
Contributor
Contributor

Before mark VM as template you need install perl-File-Temp package. After install customization works fine.

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