vSphere Virtual Machine Administration - Documentation - VMware
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration - Documentation - VMware
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration - Documentation - VMware
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<strong>vSphere</strong> <strong>Virtual</strong> <strong>Machine</strong> <strong>Administration</strong><br />
Customizing Guest Operating Systems in the <strong>vSphere</strong> Web Client<br />
When you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template, you can customize the guest<br />
operating system of the virtual machine to change properties such as the computer name, network settings,<br />
and license settings.<br />
Customizing guest operating systems can help prevent conflicts that can result if virtual machines with<br />
identical settings are deployed, such as conflicts due to duplicate computer names.<br />
You can specify the customization settings by launching the Guest Customization wizard during the cloning<br />
or deployment process. Alternatively, you can create customization specifications, which are customization<br />
settings stored in the vCenter Server database. During the cloning or deployment process, you can select a<br />
customization specification to apply to the new virtual machine.<br />
Use the Customization Specification Manager to manage customization specifications you create with the<br />
Guest Customization wizard.<br />
Guest Operating System Customization Requirements<br />
To customize the guest operating system, you must configure the virtual machine and guest to meet <strong>VMware</strong><br />
Tools and virtual disk requirements. Other requirements apply, depending on the guest operating system type.<br />
<strong>VMware</strong> Tools Requirements<br />
The current version of <strong>VMware</strong> Tools must be installed on the virtual machine or template to customize the<br />
guest operating system during cloning or deployment.<br />
<strong>Virtual</strong> Disk Requirements<br />
The guest operating system being customized must be installed on a disk attached as SCSI node 0:0 in the<br />
virtual machine configuration.<br />
Windows Requirements<br />
Customization of Windows guest operating systems requires the following conditions:<br />
n Microsoft Sysprep tools must be installed on the vCenter Server system. See Chapter 6, “Installing the<br />
Microsoft Sysprep Tool,” on page 101.<br />
n The ESXi host that the virtual machine is running on must be 3.5 or later.<br />
Guest operating system customization is supported on multiple Windows operating systems.<br />
Linux Requirements<br />
Customization of Linux guest operating systems requires that Perl is installed in the Linux guest operating<br />
system.<br />
Guest operating system customization is supported on multiple Linux distributions.<br />
Verifying Customization Support for a Guest Operating System<br />
To verify customization support for Windows operating systems or Linux distributions and compatible<br />
ESXi hosts, see the <strong>VMware</strong> Compatibility Guide at <strong>VMware</strong>.com. You can use this online tool to search for the<br />
guest operating system and ESXi version. After the tool generates your list, click the guest operating system<br />
to see whether guest customization is supported.<br />
44 <strong>VMware</strong>, Inc.