Sysprep Guest OS

[timcwhite]

Good morning,

I am trying to sysprep a virtual machine (Windows Server 2003 sp2) so that I can create a template for furture deployments. Can anyone assist me with this. I have downloaded the sysprep tool onto the guest os, ran the sysprep.exe but the only thing that happened was that my guest rebooted and lock me out. Help, please.

Tim White

[RParker]

pg. 215. Start there, it will give you ALL the information, if you still need help, come back and we can clarify.

[admin]

Hi Tim,

WHen you ran sysprep did you get some options like factory or reseal? If so which one did you pick?

[timcwhite]

I chose factory. It reboot my machine now I can't log in.

[piacas]

Do not sysprep the Vm if you are going to use customization from VC later on. The customization from VC 2.5/ESX3.5 will fail to apply to already sysprepped VM's. This did used to work in earlier version, but now customization seems to be only applied non-sysprepped Vm's.....

[timcwhite]

Ok, so what's the best way to deploy multiple vm's from either a clone or template. I don't want a bunch of vm's with the same unique id's. I'm going through the customization wizard now. Does this remove all the unique identifiers?

[piacas]

As long as sysprep is on VC server , and placed into correct directory, the will be option got generate new SID, so using the customization wizard, you will be able to generate a SID, netbios name and IP for the VM deployed from template.

[timcwhite]

ok what direcrory should sysprep be in. I downloaded sysprep from Microsoft and attempted to extract the file. It seemed to finish properly but the only thing i see is a file called deploy.cab located in c:windows\system32 . When i click on this file it opens, then I see the sysprep.exe file amongst others. Is this correct.

[admin]

Yes you should be able to extract the files from the cab files and place them in the correct directory.

[piacas · Accepted solution]

goes in: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\(your sysprep version for OS directory).......

[Chris_Price]

You'll need the sysprep package for whatever guest OS version your using... there's a 32 bit version and a 64 bit for the server 2003 platforms, and another one for server 2000. copy the sysprep executables from the correct version'd sub folders under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\

When you've created your template, you'll do a DEPLOY FROM TEMPLATE ( DO NOT CLONE FROM TEMPLATE) .. then select CUSTOM when the wizard launches... you will see an option (i believe on the third step) to generate a new unique SID. Once that's done, you're on your way.

A word of advise though, the only way i could get the 64bit 2003 sysprep executables was to actually installed the sysprep package onto a 64bit OS, then COPY the executabled to the management server.

Good luck.

[timcwhite]

Thanks for helping with this problem. I had the sysprep file located in the wrong path.