Sysprep Location on vCenter

Microsoft Sysprep tool is used to do the customization of Windows guest operating systems, Sysprep tool is useful when you clone VM or when you deploy VM(s) from the template, So to automate the customization of windows guest operating systems copy the correct version of Sysprep for each guest operating system in vCenter.

Microsoft includes the system tool set on the installation CD-ROM discs for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 (Copy all files after extracting  “\Support\Tools\Deploy.cab” file from your CD). Sysprep tool is built in to Windows Vista, Windows7 and Windows 2008 operating system (so you don’t need to copy for them).

Location to store the Sysprep files on your vCenter will depend on Operating System on vCenter service is installed and running:

For Windows 2003 operating system (64bit) path will be “C:\Document And Settings\All Users\ApplicationData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\<OS-Name>” (<OS-Name> will be the name of individual operating system).

Copy these files by extracting “\System\Tools\Deploy.Cab” from Windows Product CD-ROM

For Windows 2008 operating system (64bit) path will be “C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\<OS-Name>”.

Location to copy sysprep files on Windows 2008 based vCenter Server

For Appliance based vCenter path will be “/etc/vmware-vpx/sysprep/<OS-Name>”. (You can use tool like Winscpto copy, paste file to and from your local computer from and to linux based computer using graphical interface).

Using Winscp to Copy Sysprep files onto Appliance Based vCenter Server

The Password for the local administrator account on the VM need to clone or Template is set to blank (“”).