Guest Customization for Stopped Virtual Machines

You can customize certain settings in the guest operating system with the help of the vSphere Web Services SDK. Customization is simpler for a virtual machine that is not running.

Use this general procedure to customize a guest operating system that you can shut down without a significant service impact. However, to initialize a virtual machine in a cloud environment, by using the cloud-init utility, see Guest Customization Using cloud-init.

Prerequisites

A guest operating system can be easily customized while it is not running. If stopping the guest will cause a significant service impact, such as in an instant clone virtual machine, see Guest Network Customization for Instant Clone Virtual Machines instead.

Procedure

  1. Shut down the guest operating system by using the ShutdownGuest method or the PowerOffVM_Task method.
  2. Prepare a CustomizationSpec data object that specifies the desired global IP settings, virtual NIC settings, and so on.
  3. Invoke the CustomizeVM_Task method of the VirtualMachine managed object.
  4. Start the guest operating system by using the PowerOnVM_Task method of the VirtualMachine managed object.

What to do next

For more information about customizing the guest operating system, in the context of virtual machine configuration, see Customizing the Guest Operating System.