Why does template customization make the NIC disconnected??

[tlyczko]

I've been testing template customization with a Win2k3 Enterprise 'gold' template.

Every time I deploy from this template, the newly created VM does not have its NIC set to connect at power on.

How do I fix this??

It does not seem to matter which kind of NIC -- flexible or enhanced vmxnet.

Having to reset the settings every time sort of ruins the whole idea of templates deployment.

VC 2.5 u4 and ESX 3.5 u3 -- VIC running on Vista...initial testing seemed to work, but today the NICs won't connect...

Thank you, Tom

[Troy_Clavell]

do you have your template setup so that the NIC is set to connect at power on?

[tlyczko]

do you have your template setup so that the NIC is set to connect at power on?

YES!!

I also am finding that things don't work well if I don't use the flexible adapter...with the enhanced vmxnet adapter, things just don't work well...even though the vmxnet is installed into the template...I think I am stuck switching adapters after the VM is created...

Thank you, Tom

[tlyczko]

YES!!!

[Troy_Clavell]

according to you are using the correct adapter. The KB also points to another KB which may or not not be helpful in your situation

....and your VMware Tools are current on your template

[tlyczko]

I know that either flexible or vmxnet will work within Win2k3 Ent 32- or 64-bit.

I also know how to change them around etc.

VMware Tools are up to date in the template.

The problem is that if I set up the template to have vmxnet, then two problems occur:

1) the NIC in the new VM is not set to connect at power on, it must be manually turned on (vmxnet or flexible)

2) with vmxnet in use to start with, the VM doesn't connect to the network on first start, if one stops its startup and restarts it, the VM will continue sysprep but eventually fail on networking again

I will try one more time with vmxnet and if #2 happens again I will go back to flexible in the template, one less problem to deal with...

Thank you, Tom

[Bisti]

Sorry for digging up old thread but have you managed to solve the issue?

The syptoms: When i deploy VM from template its NIC is disconnected in VM settings thus the customization wizzard fails to add it to domain. Template have "Connect on power on" set to on.

The setup:

• Windows XP SP3

• vmxnet3

• Latest VMware Tools

• vCenter and ESXi 4.0 U2

[Bisti]

Ok, it seems I managed to find source of the issue. The VM was connected to DVS with port binding set to dynamic. When I connected it to DVS port group set to static port binding, everything worked well - NIC was connected after customization and VMadded to domain.

The reason i was using dynamic binding was due to VMware View Linked clones unable to recompose on DVS with static binding.

One more interesting thing is that when i do not use customization, eaven on dynamic binding, VM NIC is connected. So my wild guessis that the issue must be related to customization wizzard bugging with DVS dynamic binding.

[Poort443]

I ran into this same issue. I'm using dVS on my hosts, so now I have a big problem because I use View Persistent and NonPersistent Pools. The Persistents are of course deployed form templates, and fail due to lack of network... It's forcing me to remove the dVS. This should have been found out in testing. Non Persistent requires dynamic binding, and Persistent fails because of this.

[Bisti]

The workaround to this issue is to create two port groups on DVS with same VLAN ID, one set with dynamic port binding and the other with static port binding. You will have to create/edit two templates accordingly.

[Miff]

I have the same issue as the first post. We are running vSphere 4.0 U1 with vCenter 4.1.

The VM is a Win2008R2 STD. Nothing special with the VM.

We are not using DVS, just good old vSwitches (yes it would be nice with enterprise+ license ).

The VM is a clean Win2008 installation. The VM is deployed and the NIC is by default disconnected. The customization profile does the job except for joining the domain. Even if I connect the NIC before first boot the VM aint joining the domain and I guess it's related to the issue that is mentioned in earlier posts.

Any ideas? ...since it's not a DVS specific issue.

Thanks in advance!

//M

IN ADDITION:

Funny thing, the thingy worked now, joining DOMAIN etc. The change I did was to make a new clean Win2008 installation. ....but there's still the issue that the NIC is disconnected by default when deploying using a customization.

MY PROBLEM SOLVED:

When you deploy a template with customization the NIC will be disconnected by default, this is not a problem, this is just as it should be!

At first boot, the Vmware-tools will prepare the machine with the sysprep files (at this point the VM is disconnected from the network) and when it's done it will reboot the VM and connect the NIC. Boot it up and init the sysprep thingy.

So just leave the VM alone after the deployment and the first bootup, this will take a few minutes and it will reboot automaticly etc. and everyone should now be fully working, the VM has joined the domain and everything should have been fixed by the specs in the customization profile.

//M

[Bisti]

Things to verify:

• Does the template have both options selected for nic: Connected and Connect on power on?

• Does the NIC port group inside the template exist on the server?

• Does the NIC get connected status after completed deploy process?

For myself I used custom script to join the domain so that I could place VMs in specific OU.

[ejward]

I'm having the same issue. vSphere 5.1.

My customization specification works with one all my Windows 7 templates except one. One template always deploys disconnected from the network.

VMware tools is up to date.

A normal deployment takes about 20 minutes, I let this one sit over night and it was still off the network.

The template is set to connected at power on.

If I convert the template to a VM, it's connected.

We're not using distributed switches.

We currently have 30 VMs on a 120 port virtual switch so we're not out of ports.

I'm stumped at this point.

[atom_acres]

ejward - I had a similar issue and it ended up being the VM Hardware version was out of date. It was v8 and after upgrading it to v9 (latest version in 5.1) it solved my issue

[aneverov]

Let me explain a bit the behavior. At the beginning of customization we disable NICs in order to prevent duplicate IP addresses on the network. In case customization succeeds (a new networking configuration is applied), NICs will be enabled back. But in case of failure - they won't. The might be many causes to why customization fails including those mentioned on the thread, but once that is resolved, the NICs should connect fine.

/Andrii

[Mr_G_Grant]

Hi ejward,

I know this is a very old thread but i experienced this issue in vCenter 5.1.0 using ESXi 5.1. Windows 8 guests would clone fine but sysprep would not work due to the nic being disconnected. Not sure if this is just a fluke but I unregister the vm template from vCenter then added it back again. Now the sysprep is working without any issue!

Hope this helps somebody!

Regards

Mr G

[nagyistvan]

It sure did.

István

[ScottR23]

Thanks for this! Solved the issue for me with Server 2012 templates.

Scott