Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
10. Select how you want to customize the guest OS.
You can use an existing customization specii cation by selecting Customize Using
An Existing Customization Specii cation, or you can select Customize Using The
Customization Wizard to supply the customization information interactively. We've
shown you both options already. In this case, let's use the specii cation you created ear-
lier, so select Customize Using An Existing Customization Specii cation and select the
specii cation you created earlier. Click Next.
Don't Select Do Not Customize
We do not recommend selecting Do Not Customize. h is w ill result in a VM that has the same guest
OS and network confi guration as the original template. While this might not cause any problems
the fi rst time you deploy from this template, it will almost assuredly cause problems for future
deployments.
h e only instance in which selecting Do Not Customize is applicable is if you have already taken
steps within the guest OS installation (such as running Sysprep in a VM with a Windows-based
guest OS) before converting it to a template.
11. Because the customization specii cation you created earlier was created with the option to
prompt the user for the static IP address to be assigned to the guest OS, the Deploy From
Template Wizard now prompts you for the IP address. Enter the IP address you want to
assign to this VM and click Next. If the customization had been coni gured to use DHCP,
the wizard would skip this step.
12. Review the template deployment information.
If you need to make changes, use the hyperlinks or the Back button to go back.
Otherwise, click Finish to start the VM deployment from the template.
vCenter Server will proceed to copy all the i les that compose the template into a new loca-
tion on the selected datastore. The i rst time the new VM is powered on, vCenter Server will
kick in and perform the customization according to the values stored in the customization
specii cation or the values you entered in the Guest Customization Wizard. Aside from those
changes, the new VM will be an exact copy of the original template. By incorporating the latest
patches and updates in your templates, you can thus be sure that your cloned VMs are up to
date and consistent.
Templates are a great way to help standardize the coni guration of your VMs while also
speeding up the deployment of new VMs. Unfortunately, vCenter Server doesn't make it pos-
sible for you to transport a template between vCenter Server instances or between different
installations of VMware vSphere. To help address that limitation, VMware helped develop a
new industry standard: the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) standard.
Using OVF Templates
Open Virtualization Format (formerly called Open Virtual Machine Format) is a standard for-
mat for describing the coni guration of a VM. While originally pioneered by VMware, other
 
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