Debian and Ubuntu LiveCDs have a builtin feature that allows you to use a file or a partition as persistent storage. If I remember right the feature is called "Persistece"
You would use a normal vmdk and prepare it for this feature.
Then you boot from CD and use a special cheatcode at boot time to activate the persistence-file / partition.
You then create custom startup scripts to coonfigure various options ...
This is completely done within the guestOS - no special Fusion-feature necessary.
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Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...