Custom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints

vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for linked clone blueprints.

Certain vRealize Automation custom properties are required to use with linked clone blueprints.

Table 1. Custom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints
Custom Property	Description
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Storage	Specifies the datastore on which to place the machine disk `N`, for example DATASTORE01. This property is also used to add a single datastore to a linked clone blueprint. `N` is the index (starting at 0) of the volume to assign. Enter the name of the datastore to assign to the volume. This is the datastore name as it appears in the Storage Path on the Edit Compute Resource page. Disk numbering must be sequential.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.StorageReservationPolicy	Specifies the storage reservation policy to use to find storage for disk `N`. Also assigns the named storage reservation policy to a volume. To use this property, substitute the volume number for `N` in the property name and specify a storage reservation policy name as the value. This property is equivalent to the storage reservation policy name specified on the blueprint. Disk numbering must be sequential. This property is valid for all Virtual and vCloud reservations. This property is not valid for Physical, Amazon, or OpenStack reservations.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size	Defines the size in GB of disk `N`. For example, to give a size of 150 GB to a disk G, define the custom property VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size and enter a value of 150. Disk numbering must be sequential. By default a machine has one disk referred to by VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size, where size is specified by the storage value on the blueprint from which the machine is provisioned. The storage value on the blueprint user interface overwrites the value in the VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size property. The VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size property is not available as a custom property because of its relationship with the storage option on the blueprint. More disks can be added by specifying VirtualMachine.Disk1.Size, VirtualMachine.Disk2.Size and so on. VirtualMachine.Admin.TotalDiskUsage always represents the total of the .DiskN.Size properties plus the VMware.Memory.Reservation size allocation.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Label	Specifies the label for a machine’s disk `N`. The disk label maximum is 32 characters. Disk numbering must be sequential. When used with a guest agent, specifies the label of a machine's disk `N` inside the guest operating system.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Letter	Specifies the drive letter or mount point of a machine’s disk N. The default is C. For example, to specify the letter D for Disk 1, define the custom property as VirtualMachine.Disk1.Letter and enter the value D. Disk numbering must be sequential. When used in conjunction with a guest agent, this value specifies the drive letter or mount point under which an additional disk `N` is mounted by the guest agent in the guest operating system.
MaximumProvisionedMachines	Specifies the maximum number of linked clones for one machine snapshot. The default is unlimited.
Linux.ExternalScript.Name	Specifies the name of an optional customization script, for example config.sh, that the Linux guest agent runs after the operating system is installed. This property is available for Linux machines cloned from templates on which the Linux agent is installed. If you specify an external script, you must also define its location by using the Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType and Linux.ExternalScript.Path properties.
Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType	Specifies the location type of the customization script named in the Linux.ExternalScript.Name property. This can be either local or nfs. You must also specify the script location using the Linux.ExternalScript.Path property. If the location type is nfs, also use the Linux.ExternalScript.Server property.
Linux.ExternalScript.Server	Specifies the name of the NFS server, for example lab-ad.lab.local, on which the Linux external customization script named in Linux.ExternalScript.Name is located.
Linux.ExternalScript.Path	Specifies the local path to the Linux customization script or the export path to the Linux customization on the NFS server. The value must begin with a forward slash and not include the file name, for example /scripts/linux/config.sh.

If you installed the guest agent to customize cloned machines, you use some custom properties more often than others.

Table 2. Custom Properties for Customizing Cloned Machines with a Guest Agent
Custom Property	Description
VirtualMachine.Admin.UseGuestAgent	If the guest agent is installed as a service on a template for cloning, set to True on the machine blueprint to enable the guest agent service on machines cloned from that template. When the machine is started, the guest agent service is started. Set to False to disable the guest agent. If set to False, the enhanced clone workfow will not use the guest agent for guest operating system tasks, reducing its functionality to VMwareCloneWorkflow. If not specified or set to anything other than False, the enhanced clone workflow sends work items to the guest agent.
VirtualMachine.Admin.CustomizeGuestOSDelay	Specifies the time to wait after customization is complete and before starting the guest operating system customization. The value must be in HH:MM:SS format. If the value is not set, the default value is one minute (00:01:00). If you choose not to include this custom property, provisioning can fail if the virtual machine reboots before guest agent work items are completed, causing provisioning to fail.
VirtualMachine.Customize.WaitComplete	Set to True to prevent the provisioning workflow from sending work items to the guest agent until all customizations are complete.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath	Specifies the full path to an application's install script. The path must be a valid absolute path as seen by the guest operating system and must include the name of the script filename. You can pass custom property values as parameters to the script by inserting {`CustomPropertyName`} in the path string. For example, if you have a custom property named ActivationKey whose value is 1234, the script path is D:\InstallApp.bat –key {ActivationKey}. The guest agent runs the command D:\InstallApp.bat –key 1234. Your script file can then be programmed to accept and use this value.