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Table Of Contents
3 Click Finish.
Creating and Managing Customization Specifications
You can create and manage customization specifications for Windows and Linux guest operating
systems. Customization specifications are XML files that contain guest operating system settings for
virtual machines. When you apply a specification to the guest operating system during virtual machine
cloning or deployment, you prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical
settings, such as duplicate computer names.
vCenter Server saves the customized configuration parameters in the vCenter Server database. If the
customization settings are saved, the administrator and domain administrator passwords are stored in
encrypted format in the database. Because the certificate used to encrypt the passwords is unique to
each vCenter Server system, if you reinstall vCenter Server or attach a new instance of the server to the
database, the encrypted passwords become invalid. You must reenter the passwords before you can use
them.
Create a Customization Specification for Linux
Use the Guest Customization wizard to save guest operating system settings in a specification that you
can apply when cloning virtual machines or deploying from templates.
Prerequisites
Ensure that all requirements for customization are met. See Guest Operating System Customization
Requirements.
Procedure
1 Select Menu > Policies and Profiles, and under Policies and Profiles, click VM Customization
Specifications.
2 Click the Create a new specification icon.
The New VM Guest Customization Spec wizard opens.
3 On the Name and target OS page, enter a name and description for the customization specification
and select Linux as a target guest OS. Click Next.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
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