So, I must be going crazy. I'm coming from vCenter 5.5. For years I've deployed VM templates using a customization specification that's configured to prompt for an IP.
I moved us to the 6.5 U2 VCSA a few weeks ago. Now I'm trying to deploy a VM from a Content Library and I never get asked to provide an IP. I've triple checked my script to confirm the setting is set to prompt user, and I've created a new script from scratch. At no point during deployment am I prompted for an IP, and using the customization script without providing an IP causes the deployment to fail.
What gives?
I just spent a lot of time with support on this issue. I'm told VMware engineering has known about this and doesn't even consider it a bug, so it's not something they plan to fix. This is very disappointing and makes Content Libraries practically useless.
For my part, I'm escalating this with my account team. At the very least this is a known limitation. Content Library documentation should be updated to reflect this, a KB article should be published so others don't waste hours of their time on this like I have, and vCenter should not allow selection of customization scripts with unsupported features.
Do a test and attempt to deploy a template which is not stored in a Content Library using that same customization spec. Does it prompt you for the IP address? If yes, this may be a bug (or known limitation) when templates are stored in a CL.
Normal deployment behaves as expected; content library deployment omits the IP.
I found another post on this here: https://communities.vmware.com/thread/566750
I've opened a ticket for support; seems silly for this to be intentional.
Thinking about this, it's probably intentional. CL stores its templates as OVFs and not vSphere native templates. Prompting for an IP address would probably mean it would have to inject OVF properties at build time (which it won't do). In general, CL is severely limited in its capabilities, so if you need manual deployment with a prompt for static IP, then you probably have to use vSphere templates.
I just spent a lot of time with support on this issue. I'm told VMware engineering has known about this and doesn't even consider it a bug, so it's not something they plan to fix. This is very disappointing and makes Content Libraries practically useless.
For my part, I'm escalating this with my account team. At the very least this is a known limitation. Content Library documentation should be updated to reflect this, a KB article should be published so others don't waste hours of their time on this like I have, and vCenter should not allow selection of customization scripts with unsupported features.
Hi Scogen,
This is a limitation .
""Deploying vm from Content Library using template does not prompt for IP when Guest Customization Spec(prompt user for ipv4 address) is selected""
This has gone as a feature request as Content Library API doesn't provide API support to update the Guest Customization spec as of now. Hoping to see this is future.
As for the KB part and documentation ; I have taken a note. Should have the KB out for public in some time.