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Creating Windows Virtual Machine images for use with ESXi compute clusters in HP CloudSystem

Installing Windows and customizing options

1. Install Windows according to the standard procedures for the version of Windows you plan to use.

2. Customize Windows.

a. Enable RDP

If the VM is a server with only automated network access, then the CloudSystem Portal console access may

be sufficient for troubleshooting and setup tasks. If it is not, enable RDP as the standard interactive interface

for access to the VM.

b. Set the time-zone

c. Set network interfaces to DHCP

d. Enable the Windows firewall

e. Define the Internet Proxy

f. Set IE security settings

g. Set Windows update settings

h. Add standard corporate packages, such as antivirus and support hooks

3. Disconnect the installation media from the VM.

Step 3: Add VMware Tools to the VM

VMware tools allow the user to perform a graceful shutdown through the CloudSystem user interfaces.

A VM reboot performs a safe guest reboot if VMware tools are present. If VMware tools are not installed, a reboot results in a VM

reset (hard reboot).

Additionally, VMware tools in an ESXi VM are recommended and provide many benefits. See

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=340 for more information.

Adding VMware tools to the VM

Install VMware tools using one of the following two methods:

a. Install interactively using instructions from

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1018

377

b. Install as a package using instructions from

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1036

810

Step 4: Create an unattended file using Microsoft System Image Manager

Using an unattended file with Microsoft’s Sysprep tool automates the customization of the image when it is instantiated during

first boot. It is a powerful tool for production cloud images. For a simple test image, you can omit this step and rely on the

customizations you configured in

step 2.

If you are also using cloud-init from Cloudbase as described in

step 5, the Cloudbase tools will create a small unattended file

specifically to integrate cloud-init scripts into the Sysprep and startup process. In this case, you must merge the two unattended

files to retain the cloud-init hooks and add in the specific customizations you create in this step.

The Microsoft tool for creating unattended files is System Image Manager (SIM) which is a component of the Windows Assessment

and Deployment Kit (ADK) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824947.aspx. Some of the many image attributes that

can be controlled with the unattended file are:

• Administrator Password

This field can be used to set the password in the account to a known value or to force a user to set it interactively at first