Templates & Cloning

[VAs_RHD_Hachi_R]

I'm sorry for posting this thread, I swear that I have read just about every PDF, searched the forums, and tried a few different test before posting. I guess I would classify myself as an ESX noobie, but so far ESX it self has given me very little problems and most answers I have found on the forums and in the PDF documentation, or figured out myself.

Running ESX 3.5 and VC2.5 in Eval

Here are my questions:

1.) I pretty sure I have narrowed down the difference between cloning and templates, cloning is a copy with everything being identical such as NIC, Hard drives, processors. A template can be customized (in evalutation) but also gives the option to run the Guest OS Customization Wizard (sysprep), just wanted to make sure that was the major difference in the two and I wasnt missing anything else.

2.) Templates I guess there are many ways to create them so for my example this is how I did it and maybe there is a better way. I have Win2k3R2, Created a new Guest VM, installed the OS, ran SysPrep from inside the OS to reseal the OS, then save it as a template. When I went to create VM from template when it asked for the customization wizard I typed in all the information just like a window answer file would do. When the OS got finish cloning and it booted up it asked me for all the information that I had already typed in.

I wanted to know if I am doing this wrong or is there a better way to create templates and deploy them, honestly it would be nice to have a 2k3 server template that all I have to do is change the name depending on the server and nothing else.

Also if there is a PDF that has my answer please paste a link and I will read through it, I've read as many as I can get my hands on so far and I've started to notice there are some I've missed.

Thanks again!

Joel

www.ectoyotas.com

[jayolsen]

For #2. Just a guess but maybe since you ran sysprep before creating the template and then choose the customization on the deploy it is seeing a double sysprep type event. Try creating a template without running sysprep and then deploy and use the customization wizard only.

[khughes · Accepted solution]

Well first off don't be sorry for posting a thread. If you have a question on something, there is usually at least one other person wanting to know the answer to that question, just didn't want to ask it him/herself.

#1 - You are correct, a clone is an exact duplicate of the server, and a template is a VM (while in template mode) can not be powered on or modified, only used to push out simular VM's based off of its build. Cloning is helpful if you have an R&D enviroment where you can clone a couple servers and have an exact replica of your production enviroment.

#2 - That is one way of going about it, and its about finding what fits your enviroment and your comfort level. The way we do our templates is, example win2k3, create a new VM and do a base install like I was building out a server for the first time. Do all the patches and updates that you would normally do to a new box, and once you think you have it in best shape you can have a base build, shut it off and change it into a template. You really don't need to run sysprep on it because all that can be done in the customization part. That way you can develop a process to keep your templates up to date by possibly taking them out of template mode once one or two months, apply the latest updates and security patches, then put it back into template mode.

Templates are a great thing to have which can save you a lot of time down the road. We have up to date templates of each version of server we run, as well as a template of our Citrix enviroment, in case we have a server get corrupted, we can just destroy that VM, and push out a prestine Citrix server and have it replaced in about 45min. Hope this helps and keep asking questions, it's a great way to learn new tricks.

[VAs_RHD_Hachi_R]

I will make sure to give credit to you guys on Monday when I get back into work. (its almost midnight here in Kuwait) I will try doing it the way you suggested I think the only other question I have is when asked for your windows cd key do you type it with or without the "-" seperating each group of 5 charactors? I'm assuming if one thing is incorrect it will not work just like the winnt.sif unattend wouldnt work if one entry was incorrect.

Yes not that I dont post question, but I really like to work through the problem and search for answers, this was more of a procedure vs and actually error messages!

Thanks again!

www.ectoyotas.com

[khughes]

I totally understand what you mean on the posting of the question, but there are a lot of posts of people trying to find the best practices etc ... not all are error messages

As for the windows key, I use the "-" and it works for me. I have not tried it without, so there is a possibility that it works with and without but I'm not sure.

[jayolsen]

Yep, include the "-" dashes