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Table of Contents

Info

This page describes how to configure guest setup

for

that will use hypervisor tools on VMware vCenter and VCD.

You must install hypervisor tools on your VM templates before you configure guest setup.

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With hypervisor tools, Abiquo can do the following:

...

Note

To inject a network configuration (static IP address) in Windows, you must use a custom specification. You cannot use an unattend file.

Info
  • Guest setup with hypervisor tools can run the first time you deploy a VM and when you add a NIC to a VM that is powered off.

  • On Linux VMs, the platform will configure a global DNS that will apply to all NICs on the VM

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Customize the Windows unattend file for hypervisor tools

Note

If you are using vCenter 7.0.3 U3, please see Use a Windows unattend file with vCenter 7.0.3 U3.

For guest tools

...

with Windows, the platform default is to use a Windows unattend file.

The default unattend file is Abiquo default Windows unattend file.

Info

When you configure Windows with an unattend file, the VM obtains its IP addresses using DHCP

Guest setup with a Windows unattend file runs the first time you deploy a VM.
If the guest setup is not successful, the VM deploy or reconfigure will fail and roll back.

Using the Windows unattend file, Abiquo sets:

  • Fully qualified domain name (FQDN)

  • Guest password at deploy time

The Abiquo default Windows unattend file also includes these static settings:

  • TimeZone with default W. Europe Standard Time

  • JoinWorkgroup with default WORKGROUP

To configure a custom Windows unattend file for a datacenter

  1. Log in to the Remote Services server as an administrator

  2. Create your own custom unattend file and make the tomcat user the owner of the file

    1. By default Abiquo will replace the following variables:

      • $adminPassword

      • $domain

      • $hostName

  3. Edit the abiquo.properties file and set the location of your custom unattend file. For example:

    Code Block
    // Path to Windows unattend file
    com.abiquo.esxi.experimental.customize.win.unattendfile=/root/windows_unattend.xml

Your Windows VMs will obtain their network configuration with DHCP.

...

Configure Windows with a custom specification for hypervisor tools

If you do not want to use an unattend file, then you can use a custom specification.
See Limitations of a custom specification to configure Windows.

Tip

If there is no DHCP service available and you use a custom specification, Abiquo can assign a static IP address to the VM.
The guest setup will run the first time you deploy a VM and when you add a NIC to a powered-off VM

On VMware, to use a custom specification to configure Windows, set the unattend file unattendfile property to false.

Code Block
com.abiquo.esxi.experimental.customize.win.unattendfile=false

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By default, Abiquo uses DHCP to configure IP addresses.

...

If you are not using DHCP, prepare your VM templates for

...

static IP injection

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Edit a VM template for guest setup

...

nameEdit a VM template for guest setup

To prepare a VM template for guest setup:

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Go to Catalogue

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Edit a template with cloud-init or hypervisor tools installed.

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Go to Advanced

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For Guest setup, select Cloud-Init or Hypervisor tools.

  1. For Windows on AWS, you can select from: CLOUDBASE_INIT, EC2LAUNCH_V2, EC2LAUNCH, EC2CONFIG

...

  1. For Windows systems we strongly recommend this option

  2. The platform will log in with the template User and Password (see below) and change the Password to the guest initial password.
    The platform will send the guest initial password to the user via mail or SMS, and users can display it with the VM key button

...

  1. On Windows, enter "Administrator"

  2. On Linux, enter "root" or another user that can run chpassword, with sudo and by always entering the password

    1. If sudo is not available, please contact Abiquo Support to configure the “nosudoerrequiredforuser” property

...

  1. The platform does not save VM passwords

    1. On Linux, before deploying an instance template, edit the instance template's password to set it to the current VM password.

...

Select the Operating system. If required, enter the OS version. For more details see Set the guest operating system for VMware

...

Optionally, go to Variables and set variables for the VM template. The platform will add these variables to the VM using metadata or user data. See VM variables

...

Tip

Add the SSH public key to your user before you deploy VMs. To connect to your VM, you will often require the SSH key pair, for example, to connect to Windows VMs in public cloud via RDP

.

For Linux with CENTOS:

  1. Download a minimal CentOS OVA, for example, https://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualappliances/files/Linux/CentOS/CentOS-7.0-amd64-minimal.ova/download

  2. If Perl is not installed, then install it

  3. Install VMware tools from vCenter, following the instructions for Option 2 at: https://webhostinggeeks.com/howto/how-to-install-vmware-tools/

For Windows:

  1. Download a Windows template such as WS-2019-template-40GB-BIOS-1.vmdk

  2. Install VMware tools

  3. In Abiquo, for the Guest setup option, select Hypervisor tools, and select the Guest initial password checkbox

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Edit a VM template for guest setup

Insert excerpt
Prepare for guest setup with cloud-init or similar
Prepare for guest setup with cloud-init or similar
nameEdit a VM template for guest setup
nopaneltrue

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Users can now automate their VMs with guest setup. See Automate first boot of a VM with for guest setup

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Troubleshooting hypervisor tools

For troubleshooting Linux VMs, please check this file: /var/log/vmware-imc/toolsDeployPkg.log