Error : Guest customization is already pending for this virtual machine for RHEL VM's

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

When deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) OVA templates through VMware Aria Automation (formerly vRA) integrated with vCenter Server, users may encounter an error message "Guest customization is already pending for this virtual machine" when attempting to convert the newly deployed RHEL VM into a template. This prevents the immediate conversion of the VM to a template for future use.

Environment

Aria Automation 8.x

Cause

This behavior is expected and occurs because Aria Automation, in conjunction with VMware Tools or cloud-init mechanisms, automatically triggers a guest operating system customization task at the RHEL VM level immediately upon deployment. Even if no explicit customization script is provided by the user, the underlying system attempts to prepare the guest OS. When an attempt is made to convert the VM into a template while this customization process is still active or marked as pending by vCenter, the system returns the "Guest customization is already pending" error.

Resolution

To disable guest customization for RHEL VMs, follow these steps:

• Add the attribute customizeGuestOs: false under the resources properties section in your template code.
• Under networks, add the parameter assignment: dynamic.

Sample Code:

Here's an example of how your resource definition in the Aria Automation blueprint:

resources:

  # Replace <ResourceName> with the actual name of your VM resource

  <ResourceName>:

    type: Cloud.vSphere.Machine

    properties:

      image: <ImageName>           # e.g., "RHEL-8.8-OVA"

      cpuCount: <vCpu count>       # e.g., 2

      totalMemoryMB: <MemGB>       # e.g., 4096 (for 4GB)

      customizeGuestOs: false      # This line disables automatic guest customization

      networks:

        - network: ${resource.net.id} # Reference to a network resource

          assignment: dynamic      # Ensures dynamic IP assignment if required