6.0.1

Apply a Customization Specification to a Virtual Machine
You can add guest OS specification to an existing virtual machine. When you customize a guest operating
system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings,
such as duplicate computer names. You can change the computer name, network settings, and license
settings.
When you clone an existing virtual machine, or deploy a virtual machine from a VM template in a folder,
you can customize the guest operating system of the resulting virtual machine during the clone or the
deployment tasks.
When you deploy a virtual machine from a template in a content library, you can customize the guest
operating system only after the deployment task is complete.
Prerequisites
n
Verify the guest operating system is running.
n
Verify that VMware Tools is installed and running.
n
Power off the virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the vSphere inventory, and select Guest OS > Customize Guest OS.
The Customize Guest OS wizard opens.
2 Apply a customization specification to the virtual machine.
Option Description
Select an existing specification
Select a customization specification from the list.
Create a specification
Click the Create a new specification icon, and complete the steps in the
wizard.
Create a specification from an
existing specification
a Select a customization specification from the list.
b Click the Create a new specification from existing one icon, and
complete the steps in the wizard.
3 Click Finish.
What to do next
Power on the virtual machine.
Creating and Managing Customization Specifications
You can create and manage customization specifications for Windows and Linux guest operating systems.
Customization specifications are XML files that contain guest operating system settings for virtual
machines. When you apply a specification to the guest operating system during virtual machine cloning or
deployment, you prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings,
such as duplicate computer names.
vCenter Server saves the customized configuration parameters in the vCenter Server database. If the
customization settings are saved, the administrator and domain administrator passwords are stored in
encrypted format in the database. Because the certificate used to encrypt the passwords is unique to each
vCenter Server system, if you reinstall vCenter Server or attach a new instance of the server to the database,
the encrypted passwords become invalid. You must reenter the passwords before you can use them.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
54 VMware, Inc.