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Table Of Contents
Lab Manager User’s Guide
40 VMware, Inc.
Customizing the Guest Operating System
Lab Managercancustomizethenetworksettingsofaguestoperatingsystemthatwascreatedfromavirtual
machinetemplate.Thesesettingsincludethemachinename,IPsettings,andsecurityidentifier(SID)for
Windowsguestoperatingsystems.Thecustomizationallowsyoutocreateanddeploymultiple,unique
virtualmachinesbasedonthe
samevirtualmachinetemplatewithoutamachinenameornetworkconflicts.
Whenyouconfigureavirtualmachinetemplatewiththeprerequisitesforguestcustomizationandcreatea
virtualmachinethatusesthisvirtualmachinetemplate,Lab Managercreatesapackagewithguest
customizationtools.Whenyoudeployandpoweronthevirtual
machinethefirsttime,Lab Managercopies
thepackage,runsthetools,anddeletesthepackagefromthevirtualmachine.
Youcanenableordisablecustomizationforavirtualmachinetemplateoravirtualmachine.Toavoidconflicts
whenyouarenotusingguestcustomization,accessthevirtualmachineconsolethroughLab Manager
and
manuallysetitsnetworkparameterstouniquevalues.Bydefault,Lab Managerenablesguestcustomization
whenyoucreate anewtemplate.
Access the machine.id from an ESX Host
Theconfigurationfileforavirtualmachine,the.vmxfile,containsamachine.idline.TheLab Managerserver
systemsetsthevaluesforthislinewhiledeployingvirtualmachines.
Enablingguestcustomizationonavirtualmachinetemplateconfiguresascripttoruneverytimethesystem
startsup.Thisscriptreadsthe
machine.idinformationanddetermineswhichactiontotake.
TheLab Managerserversystemdoesnotsetanyactionsinthemachine.idlinewhiledeployingvirtual
machinetemplates.Asaresult,theguestcustomizationscriptdoesnotperformanycustomizationforthe
virtualmachinetemplatewhenitstartsup.
TheLab Managerserversystemdoes
setcustomizationactionsinthemachine.idlinewhiledeployingvirtual
machinesorchangingvirtualmachinenetworksettings.Whenthesevirtualmachinesfirststartup,theguest
customizationscriptperformstherelevantactions.
To access the machine.id line from the ESX/ESXi host
1FromtheESX/ESXihostsystem,openthe.vmxfile.
2Findthemachine.idline.
Access the machine.id from a Guest Operating System
IfyouinstallVMwareTools,youcanaccessthemachine.idfromtheguestoperatingsystemofadeployed
virtualmachine.
To access the machine.id line from the guest operating system
1Intheleftpane,clickWorkspaces.
2MovethepointerovertheconfigurationnameandselectOpen.
3MovethepointeroverthedeployedvirtualmachinenameandselectShowConsole.
4Searchfor
machine.idfrominsidetheguestoperatingsystem.
FromaLinuxguestOS,type:
# vmware-guestd --cmd machine.id.get
FromaWindowsguestOS,navigatetothedirectorywhereVMwareToolsisinstalled(usually
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools)andtype:
>VMwareService.exe -cmd machine.id.get