VMWARE VSPHERE 6.

7:
INSTALL, CONFIGURE, MANAGE

Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

Document Version: 2019-04-17

Copyright © 2019 Network Development Group, Inc.

www.netdevgroup.com

NETLAB Academy Edition, NETLAB Professional Edition, and NETLAB+ are registered trademarks of Network Development Group, Inc.

VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc.

Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3
Objectives............................................................................................................................ 3
Lab Topology ....................................................................................................................... 4
Lab Settings ......................................................................................................................... 5
1 Create a Virtual Machine Template ............................................................................ 6
2 Create Customization Specifications ........................................................................ 12
3 Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template.............................................................. 17

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

Introduction

In this lab, you will deploy a new virtual machine from a template and clone a virtual
machine.

Objectives

• Create a virtual machine template

• Create customization specifications
• Deploy a virtual machine from a template

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

Lab Topology

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

Lab Settings

The information in the table below will be needed in order to complete the lab. The
task sections below provide details on the use of this information.

Virtual Machine IP Address Account Password

sa-esxi-01 eth0: 172.20.10.51 root Train1ng$

sa-esxi-02 eth0: 172.20.10.52 root Train1ng$

sa-aio eth0: 172.20.10.10 sysadmin vmware123

sa-student eth0: 172.20.10.80 sysadmin vmware123

sa-vcsa eth0: 172.20.10.94 sysadmin@vclass.local vmware123

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

1 Create a Virtual Machine Template

In this task, you will create a template to preserve a virtual machine configuration
securely and easily deploy a new virtual machine from the template.

1. Launch the sa-student virtual machine to access the graphical login screen.

To launch the console window for a virtual machine, you may access by
either clicking on the machine’s graphic image from the topology page
or by clicking on the machine’s respective tab from the navigation bar.

2. Log in as sysadmin using the password vmware123.

3. Launch the Mozilla Firefox web browser by either clicking on the icon shortcut
found on the bottom toolbar or by navigating to Start Menu > Internet > Firefox
Web Browser.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

4. Notice the homepage is automatically configured to load the URL address of the
VMware vCenter Server Appliance (sa-vcsa virtual machine). Click on the Launch
vSphere Client (HTML5) button to launch the vSphere Client.

If you cannot successfully load the VMware Getting Started webpage,

then please wait an additional 3-5 minutes and refresh the page to
continue. During this time, the vCenter Server Appliance is still booting
up and requires extra time to initialize.

5. In the User name text field, type sysadmin@vclass.local and in the Password text
field, type vmware123. Click on Login.

You may ignore the “browser-OS combination” warning message

presented on the VMware vCenter Single Sign-On page and continue
moving forward with the lab.

6. In the navigator pane, select the VMs and Templates tab.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

7. Expand the Datacenter inventory object in the navigator pane, followed by right-
clicking on VM1-1 and selecting Template > Convert to Template.

8. Click Yes to confirm the conversion.

9. Notice the icon for VM1-1 changed in the navigator pane. Right-click the Datacenter
object and select New Folder > New VM and Template Folder.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

10. In the New Folder window, enter Templates as the folder name and click OK.

11. Right-click the VM1-1 virtual machine template and select Move to folder.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

12. In the Move to folder window, select the Templates folder and click OK.

13. Expand the Templates folder in the navigator pane. Right-click the VM1-1 virtual
machine template and select Rename.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

14. In the Rename window, enter VM-Template and click OK.

15. Leave vSphere Client open to continue with the next task.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

2 Create Customization Specifications

In this task, you will save the guest operating system settings in a customization file,
which is applied when you clone virtual machines from templates.

1. While in vSphere Client, click the Menu and select Policies and Profiles.

2. In the navigator pane, underneath Policies and Profiles, select VM Customization

Specifications and click the New button.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

3. In the New VM Guest Customization Spec window, on the Name and target OS step,
enter VM-CustomSpec in the Customization Spec Name text box. Verify that
172.20.10.94 is selected as the vCenter Server. Under Guest OS, select the radio
button for Linux and click Next.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

4. On the Computer name step, select the radio button for Use the virtual machine
name and enter vclass.local as the Domain name. Click Next.

5. On the Time zone step, select US for the Area and then select Eastern as the
Location. Click Next.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

6. On the Network step, verify that Use standard network settings for the guest
operation system, including enabling DHCP on all network interfaces is selected
and click Next.

7. On the Enter DNS and Domain Settings step, enter 172.20.10.10 in the Primary DNS
text box and click Next.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

8. On the Ready to complete step, review the information and click Finish.

9. In the Customization Specification Manager pane, verify that VM-CustomSpec is

listed.
10. Leave vSphere Client open to continue with the next task.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

3 Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template

In this task, you will use a template to deploy and provision new virtual machines rapidly
and easily customize the guest operating system.

1. While in vSphere Client, click the Menu and select VMs and Templates.

2. In the navigator pane, right-click VM-Template and select New VM from this
Template.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

3. In the Deploy From Template window, on the Select a name and folder step, enter
VM1-2 as the name. Select the Datacenter object as the location and click Next.

4. On the Select a compute resource step, select sa-esxi-01.vclass.local as the compute

resource and click Next.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

5. On the Select storage step, choose datastore 1 from the list and select Thin
Provision from the Select virtual disk format drop-down menu. Click Next.

6. On the Select clone options step, select the Customize the operating system and the
Power on virtual machine after creation checkboxes and click Next.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

7. On the Customize guest OS step, select VM-CustomSpec and click Next.

8. On the Ready to complete step, review the information and click Finish.

9. Monitor the progress in the Recent Tasks pane and wait for it to complete.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

10. Once completed, right-click on VM1-2 in the navigator pane and select Open
Remote Console.

11. In the virtual machine console window, log in as sysadmin with vmware123 as the
password.

12. Click the Power icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and click the Settings
icon.

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Lab 11: Using Templates and Clones

13. In the All Settings window, click on the Date & Time icon underneath the System
section.

14. Confirm that the Time Zone is set to Eastern time zone. Remember that this was
configured in the VM-CustomSpec object.
15. Close the virtual machine console window.
16. Change focus to the vSphere Client and select VM1-2 from the navigator pane. In
the main workspace, ensure that the Summary tab is selected and verify that
VMware Tools is installed and running.

17. The lab is now complete; you may end the reservation.

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