Network becomes invalid on RHEL 9.3 deployed from guest customization

Products

• VMware vSphere ESX 8.x
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• The RHEL 9.3 virtual machine is deployed from guest customization.
• Network interface is not showing the address information:
  
  # ip a
ens192: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state DOWN group default qlen 1000
  
  
• The 'nmcli' command shows that connection is refused:
  
  Error: Could not create NMClient object: Could not connect: Connection refused.
Could not contact NetworkManager: Could not connect: Connection refused.
  
  
• The 'dbus' service is not loaded:
  
  # systemctl --failed

              UNIT                    LOAD     ACTIVE    SUB       DESCRIPTION

         dbus-broker.service          loaded   failed    failed    D-Bus System Message Bus
         dbus.socket                  loaded   failed    failed    D-Bus System Message Bus Socket

Cause

RHEL 9.3 template is installed with the minimal option that guest customization is unable to complete the process.

Resolution

To fix the issue follow the steps in Guest Customization on Minimal Install RHEL Not Completing