Issue with customization of XP SP2 machine.. attached logs

[steve31783]

Hey all...

I have a new build of an XP SP2 template that I'm trying to use customization on... customization works fine on my old XP SP2 build, but something on this new build is stopping it from running. Upon startup of the new machine, I see the VMWare Customization script start to run, and then it just flashes away and I am left at a login screen.

Here is the log from c:\windows\temp\vmware-cust-nativeapp.log

** Native application log started. **

Error opening registry key.

Error while fetching obfuscation status.

The unobfuscation process is not in scheduled state.This is a fatal error. Exit -1.[INFO] Exiting with code -1.

Error opening registry key.

Error while setting obfuscation status.

Unable to update obfuscation status.

Deallocating all acquired space.

Destroying heap.

Closing log.

** End of log **

Any ideas? Any other places I could look?

[steve31783]

Before anyone asks.. I do have the latest sysprep files for XP SP2, and they are in the right place. The customization works fine for my old image, its just a problem Im having when trying to use a new image that I can't seem to figure out.

[buckethead]

Steve,

Any luck on this issue? I am seeing a very similiar issue. It is only happening for me on my Virtual Center 2.5 Update 2 boxes. I am not having issues on my remaining Virtual Center 2.5 Update 1 box.

[steve31783]

Unfortunately no luck at all.

In the meantime, I've decided to just sysprep my xp image before making it a template. Running sysprep directly on the machine works fine.

[buckethead]

I finally got a machine to actually run the guest customization after the template was deployed. I was just about to do the same thing that you have done with running sysprep directly on the machine. I went ahead and put the 3.5 Update 2 version of VM tools on the template and then deployed it again. This time it deployed with no issues and the customization ran perfectly. I am going to do some more testing and make sure that really was the resolution as I did make MANY changes trying to get this fixed over the last 12 hours.

[steve31783]

Cool, thanks.

My VM defenitely has the 3.5U2 version of the tools, that was the first thing I thought of.

Let me know if you find out anything else..

Steve

[mokotoe21]

Out of curiosity, were either of you trying to deploy to ESX 3.0.x boxes by any chance?

I see this as well and am trying to narrow down the conditions.

Using VC 2.5 U2, I'm able to deploy customized VM's to an ESX 3.5 U1 host but failing when deploying to a ESX 3.0.2 box.

I see a similar message in c:\windows\temp\vmware-cust-nativeapp.log:

** Native application log started. **

Data length is 1

The unobfuscation process is not in scheduled state.This is a fatal error. Exit -1.[INFO] Exiting with code -1.

Deallocating all acquired space.

Destroying heap.

Closing log.

** End of log **

Do you see the following message in the "C:\Windows\temp\vmware-imc\guestcust.log" as well:

Customization in progress set to 1 at 2008-Aug-07 16:29:41

Rpci: Sending request='deployPkg.update.state 4 0 C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\vmware-imc\guestcust.log'

Rpci: Sent request='deployPkg.update.state 4 0 C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\vmware-imc\guestcust.log', reply='Unknown command', len=15, status=0

Unable to set customization status in vmx.

[NJKwork]

If I install the 3.5 U2 version of the tools to my template, can I then deploy that template still to my older 3.02 hosts? It is going to take us a few months to upgrade all of our hosts, so in the mean time I will need to be able to do this. What will happen if I run newer tools on an older host?

SB

[buckethead]

I was having the issue with deploying to 3.x machines after upgrading to VC 2.5 Update 2.

The fix for me was to upgrade the VM tools on ALL my templates to the version from an ESX 3.5 Update 2 host. So even though my template was on 3.02 and the host I was deploying on was on 3.02 it would not work. The VM tools was the latest version as well. So I copied the VM Tools iso from a 3.5 Update 2 host onto the network share and then updated the tools on all of my 3.0.2 templates.

I do have a ticket opened with VMware support to see if we can get a better explanation as I am thinking others will be seeing this problem.

[buckethead]

We have not seen any issues yet by doing this. We are being aggressive right now in getting upgraded to 3.5 Update 2 from ESX 3.0.2 just in case there could be a problem.

I did a quick check of the forums and did not hear of any issues where people were running a newer version of the tools than what they had on the host.

[NJKwork]

Thanks.

Last night I tried the latest tools on my template, and it is still broken. I even tried deploying the template on our new 3.5 U2 server, and the same issue - SYSPREP fails to run at first boot. I have a call in with tech support but so far we have found nothing let. I was really hoping the VMware tools was going to fix this for me....sigh.

SB

[steve31783]

Has anyone gotten any update from VMWare on this particular scenario? Just curious where everyone was at.. I am still having the same issue.

[NJKwork]

Please refer to this thread:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/161596

There is a work-around that is working for me provided there. Last I heard, VMware is aware of the issue but has no plans to release a hotfix for it prior to U3.

SB

[steve31783]

Thanks.. I will look into that now.