Guest OS customization of a Windows virtual machine fails to complete on a ESXi 6.0 Update 1b host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

After cloning a Windows virtual machine from an existing template with upgraded VMware Tools, you experience these symptoms:

• You are unable to customize the virtual machine.
• Customizing the virtual machine fails.
• This issue does occur on templates that have a fresh installation of VMware Tools or a reinstall of the latest versions of VMware Tools.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0 1b

Cause

This issue occurs due to version mismatch during the upgrade process of VMware Tools provided on the ESXi 6.0U1b host (build 3380124) with VMware tools build number 3000743.

Resolution

Resolved in ESXi 6.0 Update 2.

 

Alternatively, this issue can also be resolved by updating the VMware Tools version in the virtual machine to 10.0.6 or later.

 

Workaround:

1. Reinstall VMware Tools on the source virtual machine/Template
2. Redeploy/clone the virtual machine with customization.