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mawillis
Contributor
Contributor

Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

I am running a Virtual Center 2.5 and ESX server 3 environment. I have just created a new Windows Server 2008 RTM (32bit) Template and would like to deploy using the customization wizard within Virtual Center 2.5. When I get to the customization screen, I see the following message:

"Warning: Customization of the guest operating system 'winLonghornGuest' is not supported in this configuration. Microsoft Vista (TM) and Linux guests with Logical Volume Manager are supported only for recent ESX host and VMware Tools versions."

I have a Vista Template that I am able to use the customization wizard with. Has any body else seen this problem with a Server 2008 template?

Thanks.

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48 Replies
jadmatrix
Contributor
Contributor

Has this been fixed yet??? We are running VC 2.5U3 and ESX 3.5U2 and it still does not appear to work. Is there a plan to fix this?

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blckgrffn
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Very curios too. Running vc2.5 U3 and esx 3.5 U3 and still can't deploy 2008 64 bit with the customizatoin wizard. What gives?

We are starting to ramp our transition to 2008 and this needs to be fixed! The Vista work around is quirky and doesn't provide a lot of warm fuzzies...

Thanks,

Nat

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jonb157
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Can someone from VmWare respond to this for us? I'm up to date with the latest versions of ESX and VirtualCenter and still get the error. The workaround does work, although we've had some issues with that too; I'm thinking it has to do with when we use the customization wizard.

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mrdenny
Contributor
Contributor

I just got done installing ESX 3.5.0 Update 3 and VC 2.5 Update 3 and when I try to deploy a Windows 2008 guest from a template with customization I still get the error. When I switch it to Vista 32bit (it's a 32bit machine) I get an error saying that winVistaGuest isn't supported in this configuration.

Any idea what to try from here?

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jjgunn
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

The VM you are cloning from must be set to Vista. Once the clone completes, power the clone on. Be sure to leave the OS setting in Virtual Center set to Vista on your new clone. The customization will complete. Once ompleted, you will see all your customization intact. You can then shut down the VM and switch it back to Win 2008 in VC.

I'm using ESX 3.5 U2 with VC 2.5 U3 and all customization worked properly with Win 2008 using this method.

Hope this is helpful!

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mrbrown66
Contributor
Contributor

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if anyone is aware of when Windows 2008 sysprep process will be properly supported through the VI Client?

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jonb157
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Last I heard it wasn't going to be fixed until version 4 or vSphere; whatever you want to call it.

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dgrace
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

mrbrown66- looks like you were just a day early....

VMware vCenter 2.5 Update 4: "vCenter now supports customization of Windows Server 2008 guest operating

systems."

Of course... I upgraded to update 3 just yesterday!

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mrbrown66
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for your email. I am away on sick leave until Tuesday 3rd March 2009

Please contact the Service Desk or Peter Kenny (peter.kenny@mbf.com.au - IT Operations Manager) in my absence.

Thanks,

Jared Devers

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mrdenny
Contributor
Contributor

Strange. I just installed U4 and it is still telling me that it can't configure winLonghornGuest machines. Full text is

"Customiazation of the guest operating system 'winVistaGuest' is not support in thei confuguration. Microsoft Vista an dLinux guests with Local Volume Manager are supported only for recent eSX host and VMware Tools versions. Please refer to Virtual Center documentation for supported configuration."

Any ideas here?

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jonb157
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I wonder if you ESX host needed to be updated. What version of ESX/build are you using? I just updated our lab with Vc 2.5 update 4 and I'm going to test the customization wizard on a Windows 2k8 64 bit VM. What did you choose for the VM setting option for OS-type?

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mrdenny
Contributor
Contributor

Our hosts are 3.5.0 build 123630. For the OS Type I've got "Microsoft windows Server 2008 (32-bit)" selected. Tried with Vista as well, no joy there either.

I also tried creating a new template and no joy on a new template.

Hopefully I don't need to update the host as well. Our machines are local storage so no vMotion and I hate to take an outage just for this.

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JoJoGabor
Expert
Expert

Does anyone know the method that vCenter customises templates - does it use sysprep? As far as I am aware Microsoft do not officially support Windows 2008 machines that have been cloned with sysprep. The only supported method is using WAIK/WDS

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jjgunn
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Windows Vista has sysprep built-in to the OS.

For all other Microsoft OS's (Win 2000 or Win 2003 or WinXP, etc.) You must install sysprep on Virtual Center

The VM or template you are cloning from must be set to Microsoft Windows Vista. Once the clone completes, power the clone on. Be sure to leave the OS setting in Virtual Center set to Microsoft Windows Vista on your new clone. The customization will complete. Once completed, you will see all your customization intact. You can then shut down the VM and switch it back to Win 2008 in VC.

I'm using ESX 3.5 U2 (build 110268) with VC 2.5 U3 (build 119598) and all customization worked properly with Win 2008 using this method. I have 2 successful Win 2008 servers virtualized.

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mrdenny
Contributor
Contributor

It appears that I've gotten it working. The template must have the latest version of VMware Tools installed on it. I had to convert the machine to a VM, fire it up and upgrade the tools on it. Then the vCenter server would let me deploy the template.

Thank You,

Denny Cherry

Senior Database Administrator / Architect

Awareness Technologies

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phyler
Contributor
Contributor

I have it working, sorta. It works were I can deploy a template and it boots, then when you reboot it, it will say "VMWare Imaging Customization in process" (or something of that nature). It definitely does something as afterwards you have to reset the Admin password. But, it doesn't change the VM name as specified in the customization and you get the "VMWare Imaging Customization in process" message every time you boot.

I have tried setting the OS to both Windows 2008 and Vista on the template and neither matters. I also have the latest tools installed. The ESX server is fully patched (143128) and vCenter is Update 4.

I must be overlooking something simple. Thoughts?

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Chanaka
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same issue. I've upgraded to Update 4 on both ESX and VC and have had multiple issues with deploying 2008 VMs from a template with the customization wazard. I mean during the new VM's first reboot it goes through the customization

and do everything except for adding the computer to the domain. I have tried this on 2 different templates but same story. Looking at the guestcust log file on the VM created out of the template there are no visible errors

with regards to the networking either. If you try to manually join the compuer using the same account specified within the customization template, it works fine.

VMWARE -


Any ideas ????

Chanaka

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JoJoGabor
Expert
Expert

Have you ensured the template VM has got a blank administrator password? This needs to be done to enable the sysprep wizard to overwrite with the password that you specified, which it needs to login and join the domain - took me ages to find that one!!

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Chanaka
Contributor
Contributor

Yup that was checked already. I mean I have truned google inside out to find out no explanation and the one that came close was the folloing thread.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/197130

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obriensl
Contributor
Contributor

has anyone gotten any more info on this issue? i'm seeing all kinds of problems doing windows 2008/vista deploys. I have all the latest esx and vcenter. the template is in a workgroup, its got the latest tools installed - I did finally get it to assign an IP address by changing the tmp and temp environment variables to point to the %systemroo%\temp and tmp directories, but still can't get the vm to change the dns name or promote to the domain. I tried the setting in the customization wizard to have the admin auto logon once, but that doesn't work for me either - it doesn't auto logon.

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