Deploying Linux virtual machines fails on guest customization and reports the error: An error occurred while customizing VM virtual_machine. For details reference the log file in the guest OS

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cannot deploy virtual machines on guest customization with RHEL7 or SLES12 running open-vm-tools
• Deploying of Linux virtual machine fails
• You see the error:
  
  An error occurred while customizing VM virtual_machine. For details reference the log file <No Log> in the guest OS.
  
  
• In the hostd.log file, located at /var/log/, you see entries similar to:
  
  <YYYY-DD-MM><TIME> [33C40B70 warning 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/virtual_machine_datastore/virtual_machine/ virtual_machine.vmx'] Tools is not able to read/copy package. state 1, Err code 3
  
  
• The virtual machine is using open-vm-tools.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5

Cause

This issue occurs when guest customization leverages the deployPkg plug-in component of VMware tools. When using open-vm-tools, the deployPkg plug-in is not installed by default causing guest customization to fail.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, the deployPkg plug-in is required to be installed on the source template virtual machine.

 

For more information on installing the deployPkg plug-in, see Installing the deployPkg plug-in in a Linux virtual machine (2075048).

Additional Information

Installing the deployPkg plug-in in a Linux virtual machine with open- vm-tools version lower than 9.10