From time
to time I stumble with a client questioning about how to make VMware vCloud Director to
join a computer at a specific OU other than default Computers OU.
Some of
them are using fancy scripts into the guest or using the Guest OS Customization
tab to accomplish this task.
Well, these
days are behind us, VMware vCloud is now capable of joining computers at the
right OU without those inventive scripts.
I have to
admit I read the vCloud’s release notes of all versions and I did not find when
this feature was introduced.
So, how do
I join a computer to a specific OU with vCloud ?
You have a
few options to set it up, at the Organization, vApp or VM level.
- On the
Organization’s properties, select Administration
and then Guest Personalization.
Add the DN
(Distinguished Name) of the desired OU on the Account Organization Unit field and you are good to go.
After that,
every machine created from this Organization would join the Organization’s
default OU you just set up.
- On the
vApp’s properties, select Guest OS
Customization, select the option to overwrite the organization’s domain and
add the DN for the OU you want.
Now when the vApp/VM get customized it will
overwrite the default Organization’s OU.
******************************** Addendum ********************************
Here are a
few more common issues when you are facing issues when customizing your guest
with Sysprep within vCloud.
First make
sure every cell has the Sysprep files.
Another one
is related to network connectivity, as vCloud make use of IP Ranges to
attribute IPs to VMs, you might have the wrong impression that’s all it needs.
But it’s not.
Sysprep
requires DHCP available before it kicks in, so depending on your network design
you will need a different approach.
For Direct
Connection networks you need a DHCP listening on the network segment.
For Routed
Connection network you need to enable DHCP on the vCNS Edge.
Since the
IP will be required just for a small period, a good practice would be to reduce
the DHCP Lease Time on those scopes.
Not sure if
it’s something else ? Take a look at the
Sysprep log file.
C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\customize-guest.log
I hope this
post helps you fix all the O.S. customization issues you might be having with
vCloud.
