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Effects of not using Guest Customization on Windows Servers

I have created several servers from a VMware template, but I don't think I used the customization settings.

I'm seeing that my AV isn't being seen by the enterprise console (mcafee).

I'm seeing that servers may be listed as not being genuine, even though a KMS server is in place and the activation vbs scripts have been run against it.

These servers are in production and I want to solve this problem without having to rebuild the servers.

What are the effects and what can I do to solve them?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

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svillardi

ASKER

OK, so what are the affects of running sysprep/generalize? What will I have to reinstall? Can I do something with VMware using the Customizations now? I need to fix this issue asap with as limited downtime as possible.

svillardi

ASKER

Will this work:
Shut down the current VM.
Clone it using the Customization Wizard
Rejoin the clone to the domain

What will be the effects of this?

Thank you.

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

There will be an element of risk if you run Sysprep on these servers.

You will need to rebuild them anyway, so you have got nothing to lose, if you go ahead and Sysprep, if they still fail, you will need to rebuild.

svillardi

ASKER

I completed the clone with the customization wizard. I saw the OOBE run, and I reset up the network card and rejoined the domain without issue. There seems to be no ill affects although for a couple of pieces of software I did have to pull the GUID out.

How can I check if there's going to be a problem later?

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

Test, does AV and KMS work okay?

svillardi

ASKER

KMS says Licensed and Volume activation expiration: 259200 minutes(s) (180 day(s)).

AV was already fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling. I don't think running the sysprep on the machine will fix that. I think it requires manual intervention.

Anything else I can check? I used the PSGETSID to see that in fact I did have matching SIDs prior to running the clone with the customization but I do not any more.

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

If all SIDs are different, I think you are good to go.