Guest Customization command failed with exitcode: 127 while attempting VM deployment using Guest Customization specification

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Guest OS customization fails for Red Hat Virtual Machines (VM) deployed via vCenter Server.
• DNS and IP settings are not applied during provisioning.
• Logs indicate that cloud-init customization fail due to missing dependency.
• /var/log/vmware-imc/toolsDeployPkg.log  (Red Hat VM)
  YYYY-MM-DDTMM:SS  error| exec failed to run (/usr/bin/cloud-init),
YYYY-MM-DDTMM:SS  errno=(2), error message:(No such file or directory) ...
YYYY-MM-DDTMM:SS  error| Customization command failed with exitcode: 127 ...
YYYY-MM-DDTMM:SS  cloud-init is not installed ... perl: command not found

 

Cause

This issue occurs because the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) template missing the essential cloud-init packages required for vSphere Guest OS Customization.

Resolution

Install missing dependency packages to resolve the issue.

1. Install Perl and cloud-init
   
   sudo dnf install cloud-init perl -y
   
   
2. Enable and start the cloud-init service:
   
   sudo systemctl enable cloud-init
   
   
3.  start the cloud-init service:
   
   sudo systemctl start cloud-init