Deploy Server 2008 from Template and Customize

[mawillis]

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.

[JoJoGabor]

Hmmm it seems strange, W2k8 is one of the simplest becuase sysprep is inbuilt. Can you deploy w2k3 VMs from the same vCenter once you copy the sysprep files over? Is the VM using DHCP or are you specifying an IP address in the spec when deploying? If Using DHCP check your DHCP server to find the IP address then ping it when the customisation is in progress just to ensure the IP address is picked up when the template is being deployed.

Is your vCenter at Update 4?

Have the SSL certificates changed on the vCenter? This can stop the password in the cust psec from being read correctly.

[obriensl]

w2k3 and xp are still working fine after the upgrade to vcenter 2.5 U4/esx3.5 U4. we've had those working for awhile, ever since 2.0/3.0.1. the 2k8/vista templates are new, we're trying to get them to work. we are using DHCP in the template and the deployed vms. I did get the NIC to work, and pick up an IP address by changing the TMP and TEMP sys environment variables to %systemroot%\TEMP and TMP (found that info in another discussion) in the template. I still can't get it to change the vm name or promote to the domain. I'm using the manual entry customization wizard, not a saved one. One thing I did notice... I tried something else that was suggested - changing the local admin account pw to blank in the template-and noticed that the password stayed blank on the deployed vm. it didn't set the pw I put into the customization wizard. So, I'm guessing that its still not getting all the way thru the customization, but no idea why.

[obriensl]

ok, i gave up on trying to get our current templates to deploy correctly, and ended up building a new windows 2008 template from scratch, and now I can do a deploy from it, but i cannot seem to get it to promote the vm into our AD domain. is there a trick to getting customization wizard to promote the deployed vm? I gave it my domain credentials in the wizard.

[JoJoGabor]

No it should be straightforward. Again make sure the VM is getting a correct IP address and that it can resolve the domain name via DNS. It normally just works. I think you sadi you handt changed the SSL certs in Vcenter, which is good, sometimes this can stop sysprep from reading the encrypted passwords in the customisation spec. The password is blank in the template VM isnt it? If it cant change the password, it wont login to start the domain join process.

Did you watch the VM as it started up for the first time to ensure the sysprep process ran? You dont need to do anything but after a couple of minutes at the Ctrl-Alt-Delete screen, sysprep will kick in and reboot the VM to perform all the customisation. Sometimes if you're too quick and login manually it will stop the sysprep process from kicking in

[Corleone83]

Hi. I work with a VC2.5 U4 and i have tryed to perform many cloning with customization from a Windows 2008 template, but everytime the new VM didn't started properly because of an error: "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error...", after clicked OK, the VM went in loop and never started.

I've read on the release note of VC2.5U4 that can be a licensing problem. My Win2008 template is already licensed, and, when i customize, i write on LincenseKey input the same of the template.

Should i put off the license of the template first of customization?

plz Help me

[syousef]

Same problem here. Haven't found a workaround yet.

[nrhudso]

From what I have read in the release notes for VC2.5 Update 5, some of the new features above vc2.5u4 includes support for more than 35 virtual machines per host in an HA cluster, customization of Windows Server 2008 guest operating systems, and Performance Overview plug-in, which provides a single view of key performance metrics for CPU, memory, disk, and network without having to navigate through multiple charts. I am updating our VC to 2.5U5 as we are preparing for 2008 deployments at the begining of the new year.

Nate Hudson

Senior Systems Engineer

West Bend Mutual Insurance

[syousef]

Strange, I'm running Update 4 and currently have four hosts setup in a HA cluster and two of the hosts have 37 VMs each. I didn't know about the 35 VM limit.

I'll be upgrading to Update 5 soon as I can get it scheduled out. Thanks for the heads up.

[KirillShusherin]

I have the same problem. Deploying VM with WinServer08 from template gives error.

But installing VMWare Tools on template resolve it.

I convert Win08 template to VM, install VMWare Tools, convert VM again to template and after this deploy finished successfully.