Prepare for guest setup with hypervisor tools

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

Customize the Windows unattend file for hypervisor tools

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Troubleshooting hypervisor tools

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