Prepare for guest setup with hypervisor tools

Owned by MS (Unlicensed)
Jan 17, 2023
3 min read

 

This page describes how to configure guest setup for hypervisor tools on VMware vCenter and VCD.

With hypervisor tools, Abiquo can do the following:

  • Set a fully qualified domain name (FQDN)

  • Generate a random password at deploy and optionally send by email and/or SMS to owner

  • Inject network configuration if no DHCP server is available

  • Inject variables into the VM

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

  • 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

Customize the Windows unattend file for hypervisor tools

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

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:

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

     

 

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.

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

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

You can also configure these properties to ensure that Abiquo waits for guest setup stages to complete.

com.abiquo.esxi.experimental.customize.configure.timeoutms=1200000 com.abiquo.esxi.experimental.customize.waitpassword.timeoutms=1200000

Configure guest initial password

 

Configure FQDN

Prepare VM templates for static IP injection with hypervisor tools

By default, Abiquo uses DHCP to configure IP addresses.

If you are not using DHCP, prepare your VM templates for static IP injection.

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: How to Install VMware Tools using yum on CentOS, RHEL, and other Red Hat-based Systems | Linux Tutorials for Beginners

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

 

Edit a VM template for guest setup

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

 

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