Windows Image based provisioning on vCenter 6.7 U3

drz9 · April 2, 2020, 12:26pm

Hello together,

I am using Foreman 1.24.2 and I am trying to deploy a Windows VM on VMware with image based provisioning and user data template.
The template works fine and the VM is deployed by cloning it as expected.

The problem I am facing is that the network adapter of vm is not connected so when the VM boots up, there is no network connection. However when I am cloning the template manually into VM and tell it to startup after clone, the network adapter is connected.

So how does foreman clone the VM differently from how I clone it? I tried to figure out via source code but I cannot find the code snippet thats responsible for VM cloning.

Thanks in advance!

drz9 · April 6, 2020, 9:43am

So basically I found the source code for clong a VM:

github.com

fog/fog-vsphere/blob/master/lib/fog/vsphere/requests/compute/vm_clone.rb

module Fog
  module Vsphere
    class Compute
      module Shared
        private

        def vm_clone_check_options(options)
          default_options = {
            'force'        => false,
            'linked_clone' => false,
            'nic_type' => 'VirtualE1000'
          }
          options = default_options.merge(options)
          options['storage_pod'] = nil if options['storage_pod'] == ''
          # Backwards compat for "path" option
          options['template_path'] ||= options['path']
          options['path'] ||= options['template_path']
          required_options = %w[datacenter template_path name]
          required_options.each do |param|
            raise ArgumentError, "#{required_options.join(', ')} are required" unless options.key? param

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But as far as I can see, it always sets the parameter “startConnected” to true. However in the VM’s .vmx-File it is explicitely set to “false”.
I started to believe this issue is maybe vSphere related so I opened a case with VMware and they at least said me there is a known bug right now:
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/77134

I am not 100% sure yet if this bug also causes the problem but I will update my vCenter as soon as there is a fixed release and try again.

Does anyone else have a similar environment and is experiencing the same issues?

drz9 · April 14, 2020, 10:05am

Update:

I just upgraded Foreman to 2.0 and the issue still persists.
Quite likely that the problem is vCenter based, they have not yet released a fix.

drz9 · April 30, 2020, 11:12am

Just upgraded to newest vCenter 6.7 Release and the issue still exists.
Is there any opportunity to see the calls Foreman does to vCenter so I can see which values are given?
Last time I checked there was following part in vCenter vpxd.log:

–> backing = (vim.vm.device.VirtualDevice.BackingInfo) null,
–> connectable = (vim.vm.device.VirtualDevice.ConnectInfo) {
–> migrateConnect = ,
–> startConnected = true,
–> allowGuestControl = true,
–> connected = true,
–> status =
–> },

VMware Support told me that backing = null might be the problem here. Where can I see, what Foreman does send to vCenter?

drz9 · May 4, 2020, 2:07pm

Found the solution:

This issue occurs when the image that is cloned is sysprepped and has IPv6 enabled. When using a non-sysprepped template and disabling IPv6 the NIC does get activated. Seems to be an issue with VMware Guest Customization that is done when cloning and using user_data template