Create Multiple Virtual Machines that Use Static IP Addresses

You can deploy multiple virtual machines with a single network adapter and configure the deployed virtual machines to use static IP addresses by applying a customization specification.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have defined a list of static IP addresses in a CSV file.

Procedure

1. Define the naming convention for the virtual machines.

   $vmNameTemplate = "VM-{0:D3}"

2. Save the cluster in which the virtual machines should be created into a variable.

   $cluster = Get-Cluster MyCluster

3. Save the template on which the virtual machines should be based into a variable.

   $template = Get-Template MyTemplate

4. Create the virtual machines.

   $vmList = @()
   	
   for ($i = 1; $i –le 100; $i++) {
       $vmName = $vmNameTemplate –f $i
       $vmList += New-VM –Name $vmName –ResourcePool $cluster –Template $template
   }

5. Save the static IP addresses from the stored CSV file into a variable.

   $staticIpList = Import-CSV C:\StaticIPs.csv

6. Create the customization specification.

   $linuxSpec = New-OSCustomizationSpec –Name LinuxCustomization –Domain vmware.com –DomainUsername "your_domain_username" –DomainPassword "your_domain_password" –DnsServer "192.168.0.10", "192.168.0.20" –NamingScheme VM –OSType Linux

7. Clone the customization specification to a nonpersistent type.

   $specClone = New-OSCustomizationSpec –Spec $linuxSpec –Type NonPersistent

8. Apply the customization specification to each virtual machine.

   for ($i = 0; $i –lt $vmList.Count; $i++) {
       # Acquire a new static IP from the list
       $ip = $staticIpList[$i].IP
   
       # The specification has a default NIC mapping – retrieve it and update it with the static IP
       $nicMapping = Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping –OSCustomizationSpec $specClone
       $nicMapping | Set-OSCustomizationNicMapping –IpMode UseStaticIP –IpAddress $ip –SubnetMask "255.255.252.0" –DefaultGateway "192.168.0.1"
   
       # Apply the customization
       Set-VM –VM $vmList[$i] –OSCustomizationSpec $specClone –Confirm:$false
   }