sysprep-deploy vm from guest customization template issue

[jrr001]

Following the VI3_Admin_guide.pdf from vmware I have had the sysprep 1.1 files extracted to the proper C:
Application Data\Vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\1.1 folder (Q257813_w2k_spl_x86_en.exe was the download file). I did not place these files in the subsequent \2k, \xp, or \srv2003.

Question 1: Does everyone else put these sysprep files in the other folders or use the specific sysprep files from those distributions?

My issue: My base template image and guest customization templates have: system restore off, startup timeout for windows to 1 sec, page file size set 768/768, dns suffix search order has three entries, lmhosts lookup is unchecked. But when a new vm is created, these options are not maintained so, system restore is on, startup timeout for windows to default of 30 sec, page file size set 768/large value, dns suffix search order entries are gone, lmhosts lookup is checked.

Anyone else seen these problems or know of a fix for this behavior?

Thanks for your input!

[TiBoReR]

question1: I always put sysprep files in srv2003 directory of my virtualcenter server for my Win 2K3 VMs and i take these sysprep files on my Win2K3 CD.

[jrr001]

I was deployed an XP sp2 base image for vdi...from my comments..need to check other OS like server 2003.

This in on VC 2.0.2 and ESX 3.0.2.

[spex]

There are some settings that are reset by sysprep like swapfile and boot.ini. For some of them there are special settings you can put in sysprep.inf. See documentation for sysprep..

Regards Spex

[jrr001]

Yes..but I thought the guest cusomizations was supposed to be used by VC during the new vm creation part of sysprep.

[jesse_gardner · Accepted solution]

The "problem" is that VC customizations use Sysprep. There's nothing magical about it. It's the same results as if you manually Sysprepp'ed a physical server with a similar sysprep.inf file.

The one thing we always notice is the boot.ini default option timeout. We just live with it (in fact we have a post-deployment script that handles it, physical or VM).

Perhaps there are fancy Sysprep options to avoid these scenarios, but I haven't heard of them, nor have I looked.