Guest OS Customization fails for ubuntu18.10 Desktop,Server and Live-Server

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

•  Conflict between cloud-init and perl script based VMware guest OS customization for Ubuntu18.10 Server Live CD (ubuntu-18.10-live-server-amd64.iso).
• IP address on Ubuntu 18.10 is missing after performing guest customization since network adapter is disconnected
• Guest customization with default open-vm-tools version 10.3.0 on Ubuntu 18.10 might fail due to fail to create bus connection.
• In the /var/log/vmware-imc/toolsDeployPkg.log file, you see the entry:

Customization command failed: Failed to create bus connection: No such file or directory

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.X

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.X

VMware vSphere ESXi 9.0

Resolution

This is a known issue.

Currently, there is no resolution.

Workaround:
To workaround this issue:

Ubuntu18.10 Server Live CD

Set cloud-init or perl scripts as the customization engine. For more information, see Search Guest OS Customization will fail for Ubuntu 18.04 Server LiveCD (54986).

Ubuntu 18.10 Server CD

1. Comment out or delete this line in the /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/tmp.conf file:

/tmp 1777 root root -

2. If you have open-vm-tools installed, open the /lib/systemd/system/open-vm-tools.service file.

Add this line “After=dbus.service” under [Unit]

Ubuntu 18.10 Desktop

1. Comment out or delete this line in the /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/tmp.conf file:

/tmp 1777 root root -

2. If you have open-vm-tools installed, open the /lib/systemd/system/open-vm-tools.service file.

Add this line “After=dbus.service” under [Unit]