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jmgriffes
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎09-28-2015 02:05 PM

Windows Images

What exactly is needed to create a customizable Windows Image?

I did the following:

  1. Installed Server 2012 R2 (straight in vCenter)
  2. Ran all Windows Updates
  3. Installed Cloudbase-init
  4. Allowed cloudbase-init to sysprep and shutdown the VM
  5. Exported to OVA
  6. Imported into VIO 2.0

I noticed that when the instance was spawned it would come up, start the Windows sysprep setup, then vCenter would shut the VM down, and run a "Customize virtual machine guest OS" task. On the next boot Windows would state that it could not continue, since the initial sysprep was interrupted.

I ran the same as above, but didn't allow cloudbase-init to sysprep the Windows VM, and found that VIO 2.0 wasn't pushing my specified Administrator Password in:

VIO_Password_Specification.JPG

I also am not seeing the options to specify affinity rules. Any help on any of this would be great.

I believe the same procedure as I detailed above (with the sysprep) made a working VM in VIO 1.0, and used cloudbase-init to set the password/etc.

3 Replies
jmgriffes
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎10-05-2015 10:32 AM

Has no one encountered this issue at all?

I'm seeing this as a large problem for implementing this in production, as many of my customers would want to use Windows images.

I noted that if I installed CloudBase-init and did not allow the sysprep to run, things worked great (IP address assigned, etc.), but the SID was unchanged (which is not good).

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TylerLloyd
Contributor
Contributor
‎10-05-2015 11:37 AM

You're not alone, I'm struggling with this too. If I install cloudbase-init with sysprep it gets stuck in the same reboot error cycle. If I don't sysprep I can't even get it to set an IP or run any of the cloudbase-init post scripts. That being said, if I wait long enough (5+ minutes) it will reboot the guest and set my password that I enter into the launch instance window. I'm still playing around with it though, I will let you know if I figure something out.

Tyler

admin
Immortal
Immortal
‎10-07-2015 05:12 PM

Guys

We are piloting "VIO Office Hours", these are opportunities to engage 1x1 with our engineering team. It will be WebEx + Teleconference based. You can share your issues and we can help troubleshoot. If you have any questions/ feedback to improve things, thats can be shared as well.

Note: this will be 1x1 with eng team so you will be the only customer and rest will be VMware team.

Please sign up using this link:

http://tinyurl.com/vio-office

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