Configure VMs with a Custom Spec

It has been brought to my attention that not everyone knows the power of a VMware custom specification. The custom spec will allow you to manage a bunch of different things. It can join your VM to a domain, configure networking, license, and even install or configure software. And the spec is able to be … Continue reading Configure VMs with a Custom Spec →

Newsletter: February 12, 2016

Hello all, I hope that everyone has had a good week? I did - mostly in the lab, and got a lot of article updates done too. My home lab has suffered for a while. I left it untouched for a month or two for VMware to try and figure out a vSphere Web Client … Continue reading Newsletter: February 12, 2016 →

Odd error – Windows could not parse or process the unattended answer file for pass[specialize]

Have you seen this odd error before? I am trying to install some new software in my lab and during the deployment of the Win2K12 template - just after deployment and start up, I saw this error message on the console. Google would have had me edit unattend.xml, and there were other ideas around that … Continue reading Odd error – Windows could not parse or process the unattended answer file for pass[specialize] →

Newsletter: January 4, 2015

Hello all, I hope everyone is doing well - and remembering to write or type 2015? It was nice to have some time off lately and I even actually took it off in the mountains. But home early and lots of work in the lab. I have some co-workers who have not used vC Ops, … Continue reading Newsletter: January 4, 2015 →

View: Customizing Timeout error

Hello all, Something interesting to share today. This has been ongoing for a while. I went to add a co-worker to a new View pool so I could work with her in my lab. But it did not work. When I checked the Machines view in View I saw the VM was in customizing mode … Continue reading View: Customizing Timeout error →

More on Windows 2012 Templates – answers!

Hello everyone, I have written on Win2K12 and templates before. Templates in vSphere are very powerful and important but have started to get complicated in Windows 2008 and frustrating in Windows 2012. The reason for this is that I like customizing the template with updated Windows configuration settings and utilities installed. This means turning off … Continue reading More on Windows 2012 Templates – answers! →

Update on Win2K12 templates – not what I expected!

Hi all, Sorry about this whole situation - I am not impressed. But I think I have figured it out. Deploying Win2K12 from template is tricky, and I thought I found out a way to do it and it was not good. I mean it worked sometimes but not always. So I pulled my article … Continue reading Update on Win2K12 templates – not what I expected! →

sysprep executed properly only three times – what’s up about that?

Hi all, In my template article I talk about doing sysprep before you turn the VM into a template. I got a tweet from Josh Cohen that said sysprep can only be used three times before it will error out. Since I expect this Win2K12 template to last a long time this is a real … Continue reading sysprep executed properly only three times – what’s up about that? →

Newsletter: May 18, 2014

Hello all, I have had a pretty good - and hard - week at the HQ. Our product is taking shape and that is quite exciting. I had a purchase approved so we are going to build out a realistic customer type lab and so that is quite exciting indeed. I have some good stuff … Continue reading Newsletter: May 18, 2014 →