Apply a Customization Specification to an Existing Virtual Machine

To prevent conflicts that can occur if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names, you can apply a customization specification to an existing virtual machine.

When you clone an existing virtual machine, or deploy a virtual machine from a VM template in a folder, you can customize the guest operating system of the resulting virtual machine during the clone or the deployment tasks.

When you deploy a virtual machine from a template in a content library, you can customize the guest operating system only after the deployment task is complete.

Prerequisites

• Verify the guest operating system is installed.
• Verify that VMware Tools is installed and running.
• Power off the virtual machine.

Procedure

1. Right-click a virtual machine in the vSphere inventory, and select Guest OS > Customize Guest OS.
   The Customize Guest OS dialog box opens.
2. Select a customization specification from the list and click OK.
   If the specification requires you to configure additional settings, a new dialog box opens and your are prompted to enter information about the required settings.