Guest operating system profiles allow you to configure guest operating system settings that will automatically be applied to the virtual machine. Depending on the guest OS you are configuring the profile for, this can include the local administrator account password, what roles and features are installed, domain join information, and computer name. You can configure a guest OS profile for Windows or Linux operating systems. Using a guest OS profile saves you having to perform these setup steps manually when deploying a virtual machine.
To create a guest OS profile for a Windows operating system, perform the following steps:
1. In the Library workspace of the VMM console, right-click the Profiles node, and click Create Guest OS Profile.
2. On the General page of the New Guest OS Profile dialog box, provide a name, and select which operating system the guest OS profile will apply to. Figure 1 shows a guest OS profile named Example Windows Server 2012 R2 for use with Microsoft Windows operating systems.
FIGURE 1 Guest OS profile
3. On the Guest OS Profile page, specify the following settings:
- Operating System Allows you to select which operating system the guest OS profile applies to. Figure 2 shows some of the options that can be selected using the drop-down menu.
FIGURE 2 Operating system
- Identity Information Allows you to configure how the VM will be named.
- Admin Password Allows you to configure the password of the built-in administrator account.
- Product Key Allows you to specify a product key.
- Time Zone Allows you to configure which time zone the virtual machine will be configured to use.
- Roles Allows you to configure which roles and role services will automatically be installed on the virtual machine.Figure 3 shows the Web Server role selected.
FIGURE 3 Roles
- Features Allows you to configure which features will be installed on the virtual machine.
- Domain / Workgroup Allows you to configure domain or workgroup settings. If specifying that the virtual machine be domain joined, you can provide credentials that allow this to occur. These options are shown in Figure 4.
FIGURE 4 Domain information
- Answer File Allows you to specify an answer file to automatically configure the virtual machine.
- [GUIRunOnce] Command Allows you to specify a set of commands that will be run automatically the first time a user logs on to the virtual machine.
