admin password field blank from guest customization in vApp templates that are synced between Cloud Director Sites

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

• vApp template is captured in VCD(VMware Cloud Director) at Site1 with a local admin password set in guest customization field. When deploying with this vApp template, the admin password set in guest customization is successfully applied to the guest operating system
• Catalog hosting the vApp template is published to VCD at site 2 and it is observed that the 'local administrator password' field is blank. Deployment using this vApp template from VCD is successful however the admin password is not applied.
• The same deployment task fails via external automation tools (Example: Terraform, Opentofu scripts, etc.) as the admin password is missing from the guest customization field of vApp template.

Environment

VMware Cloud Director

Cause

Cloud Director does not support export of secrets in subscribed template OVAs.

Resolution

Publish > Subscribe mechanism uses OVA export / import  and does not support export of secrets in subscribed template OVAs. As a workaround, you can use any one of the following workarounds:

1. Set root/admin password inside the guest O/S before you capture the template and disable password reset in the guest customization.
2. Use 'auto generate' and retrieve it after deployment.
3. Use a customization script.

Additional Information

Understanding Guest Customization
Change the Guest OS Customization of a Virtual Machine
Publish a Catalog in the VMware Cloud Director Tenant Portal
Subscribe to an External Catalog in VCD Tenant portal