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so is it recommended or not ?
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Yes, you can definitely use this function in your production environment. While deploying VM from template you need to run the customization steps, don't forget to select Sysprep option there. It would assign different GUID to your machines.
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We usually, install Windows 2012, do not add to domain, add all the patches, and then we Sysprep the VM just before, we convert to template, and shutdown.<br />
<br />
then create a OS Customization Specification to deploy wit your templates
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ok, so in this case it is supported operation for production.
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Yes, it is supported operation for production.
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Yes, but ONLY, if you Sysprep the original VM, because effectively, you are producing a CLONE.
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ok, do I need to download the Sysprep files and then copy to the VM before shutting it down ?
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Sysprep is builtin in Windows Server 2012. Either you can use Windows Sysprep or you VMware customization wizard also provides you the option of sysprep.<br />
<br />
You dont need to download it.
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No need to download, just type Sysprep!
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Ah I see,<br />
<br />
So in this case I can just shutdown the VM and then right click make it as template. <br />
<br />
After that select the customization wizard ?<br />
<br />
So is that possible or do I have to turn on the VM when cloning to template ?
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<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
Hi,<br />
<br />
in VMware 5.5u3, What steps do I need to take for creating VM clones for Windows Server 2012 R2 Std. fully patched so that it is ready to be deployed as Production VMs ?<br />
<br />
is it recommended to create production Tier-1 VM using VM deployed from a template ?
</div>
</div>


Hi,

in VMware 5.5u3, What steps do I need to take for creating VM clones for Windows Server 2012 R2 Std. fully patched so that it is ready to be deployed as Production VMs ?

is it recommended to create production Tier-1 VM using VM deployed from a template ?

Creating VM Template for Windows Server 2012 R2

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.

VMware

Windows Server 2012 is the server version of Windows 8 and the successor to Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Server 2012 is the first version of Windows Server to have no support for Itanium-based computers since Windows NT 4.0. Windows Server 2012, now in its second release (Windows Server 2012 Release 2) includes Foundation, Essentials, Standard and Datacenter, and does not support IA-32 or IA-64 processors.

Windows Server 2012

Active Directory (AD) is a Microsoft brand for identity-related capabilities. In the on-premises world, Windows Server AD provides a set of identity capabilities and services, and is hugely popular (88% of Fortune 1000 and 95% of enterprises use AD). This topic includes all things Active Directory including DNS, Group Policy, DFS, troubleshooting, ADFS, and all other topics under the Microsoft AD and identity umbrella.