Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
However, there's a potential problem here: If you are making a clone of a guest OS instal-
lation, that means you'll now have two VMs with the same IP address, same computer name,
same MAC address, and so forth. Not to worry, though: VMware built the ability to customize
the guest OS installation in the cloned VM so that you preserve the guest OS installation but
create a new identity in the cloned VM. For Linux-based guest OSes, VMware leverages open-
source tools to customize the installation; for Windows-based guest OSes, vCenter Server will
leverage Microsoft's well-known Sysprep tool. However, depending on the version of Windows
you're cloning, you may need to i rst install Sysprep on the vCenter Server computer.
Installing Sysprep on the vCenter Server
To customize Windows-based guest OS installations, vCenter Server leverages Microsoft's
Sysprep tool. If you aren't familiar with Sysprep, the purpose of the tool is to allow a single
Windows installation to be cloned many times over, each time with a unique identity. This
ensures that you have to install Windows only once, but you can reuse that Windows instal-
lation over and over again, each time using Sysprep to create a new computer name, new IP
address, and new security identii er (SID).
In order for vCenter Server to use Sysprep, an administrator must i rst extract Sysprep and
its associated i les to a directory created during the installation of vCenter Server. If these i les
are not extracted before you deploy a VM, the ability to customize the guest OS will be unavail-
able for all versions of Windows prior to Windows Server 2008. (Windows Server 2008 does not
require Sysprep to be installed on the vCenter Server computer). Figure 10.1 shows the Guest
Customization page of the Clone Existing Virtual Machine Wizard on a vCenter Server that has
not had the Sysprep i les extracted.
Figure 10.1
If the Sysprep fi les
are not extracted
and stored on the
vCenter Server
system, you might
not be able to cus-
tomize the guest
OS when you
clone a VM.
Perform these steps to allow guest OS customization of Windows Server 2003 x86 (32-bit)
guest OS templates:
1.
Insert the Windows Server 2003 x86 CD into the disk drive of the vCenter Server
computer.
2.
Navigate to the /support/tools/deploy.cab directory on the Windows Server 2003 CD.
