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Validating guest customization when preparing a virtual machine template for deployment

Purpose

This article provides steps for determining if a virtual machine template is properly prepared for deployment into a Virtual Desktop Manager environment when it uses guest customization.

Resolution

Before deploying a template that uses the guest customization feature, verify that the customization is working properly.
To verify that the customization is working properly:
  1. Ensure that that the sysprep files have been copied to the correct folder on the VirtualCenter server, %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep .
  2. Verify that a Guest Customization specification is created in VirtualCenter for the virtual machine.

    1. Open the Virtual Infrastructure (VI) client and connect to the VirtualCenter server.
    2. Right-click the virtual machine from the inventory pane.
    3. Click Edit > Customization Specifications.

  3. Deploy a template from VirtualCenter and customize it using an existing customization specification.
  4. Verify that the sysprep process takes place and completes.

    To verify that the process takes places and completes:

    1. From the VI client, verify that no errors occur during the cloning process by observing the logging pane.
    2. When the virtual machine is created, power it on and open its console view.
    3. The Windows logon screen appears for approximately 15 to 20 seconds before Windows shuts down. After this phase guest customization begins and the following screen appears:


    4. After customization has finished, log in to the virtual machine and verify that the computer name has been changed and has properly joined to the domain. For more information, see Verify that the desktop is in the domain (1006804).

      Note: If the virtual machine is unable to join the domain, make sure the template was not already joined to the domain. For more information, see Template fails to join the domain (1006124).
If the guest customization process fails, check the following logs for errors:
  • %SYSTEMROOT%\Temp\VMware-cust-nativeapp.log
  • %SYSTEMROOT%\Temp\guestcust.log

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