Virtual Centre

Sysprep Setup

The following Sysprep support directories were created during Virtual Center installation, these need to be populated in order for the VC to be able to sysprep VM's as they are deployed using Guest Customisation:

<ALLUSERSPROFILE>\Application Data\Vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep
...\1.1\
...\2k\
...\xp\
...\svr2003\
...\xp-64\
...\svr2003-64\

where <ALLUSERSPROFILE> is usually C:\Documents And Settings\All Users\. Windows 2008 (and Vista) don’t need sysprep files as the function is built into the OS.

Download the ‘System Preparation Tool’ or ‘Deployment Tools’ package that contains ‘sysprep’ from the Microsoft download centre. Make sure that you download the correct version for the guest operating system and ‘Service Pack’ that you want to customize.

1.1: In the case of the generic version 1.1 simply run the downloaded executable to extract the files then copy the contents of the Tools directory into the appropriate directory (see below).

Windows 2000: In the case of Windows 2000 simply run the downloaded executable to extract the files into the appropriate directory (see below).

Win XP: In the case of XP run the downloaded executable to create deploy.cab then use something like WinZip to extract the files into the appropriate directory (see below).

Windows 2003: In the case of Windows 2003 the downloaded executable is a Hot Fix which must be run (Installed) on a matching OS to create deploy.cab then use something like WinZip to extract the files into the appropriate directory (see below).

Update Manager

Import updates from another VC

Useful when you've a isolated VC (without internet access), and another with a full compliment of updates.

1. Copy the updates from to the VC, copy the entire Data directory
   • Default location for updates C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\Vmware Update Manager\Data
2. On the isolated VC, run a version of the following example command to update the Update Manager database
   • vmware-updateDownloadCli -p <path to patches>\Data -f esx -U <user ac>

Scan/Remediate fails

• Error: VMware Update Manager had a failure
• Detail: Patch metadata for <ESX> missing, please download patch metadata first, despite the fact that Update Manager is fully up to date.
• /var/log/vmware/esxupdate.log shows connection errors

1. On the VC, stop the VMware Update Manager Service
2. Edit vci-integrity.xml file
   • Normally found in C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Update Manager\
3. Edit the following entry, adding the VC IP address
   • <PatchDepotUrl>http://VC-IP/vci/hostupdates/hostupdate</PatchDepotUrl>
4. Restart the VMware Update Manager Service