How To Configure Guest Operating System Profile General Settings

Article
01/17/2008

Whether you create a stand-alone guest operating system profile, modify an existing stand-alone operating system profile, or create the profile while running the New Template Wizard, you can use the following procedure to configure one or more of the General Settings for virtual machines created by using this guest operating system profile.

Before You Start

The following procedure assumes one of the following:

You are creating a new stand-alone guest operating system profile and are configuring the Guest OS tab.
You are configuring guest operating system profile settings on the Guest Operating System page of the New Template Wizard.
You are configuring the properties of an existing stand-alone guest operating system profile on its Guest OS tab.

To configure General Settings on a guest operating system profile

Under General Settings (on the Guest OS tab of a stand-alone guest operating system profile or on the Guest Operating System page in the New Template Wizard), configure one or more of the following options:
1. Click Identity Information in the left pane, and then, in the results pane, specify values for the following fields:
  Computer name. Choose one of the following options:
  Option 1: If you want Virtual Machine Manager to randomly generate a computer name for virtual machines created by using this profile, accept the default value, an asterisk (*).
  Option 2: If you want to type a specific computer name, each virtual machine created by using this profile will have the same name; choose this option only if the virtual machines are not connected to any network or not connected to the same network.
  Option 3: If you want to type a partial name (for example, the prefix TestSrvr-), each virtual machine created by using this profile must initially not be connected to the same network. Later, when you specify a complete name for each computer (such as TstSrvr-01, TestSrvr-02, and so on) you can connect these virtual machines to the same network.
  Full name. Type the name (or role) of the person in whose name a virtual machine created by using this profile is registered. (This is the name that appears on the General tab of a computer's System Properties page under Registered to.)
  Organization name. Type the name of the organization of the person in whose name the virtual machine is registered. (This name also appears under Registered to on the General tab of a computer's System Properties page, just under the name of the person or role specified by Full name).
2. Click Admin Password in the left pane, and then, in the results pane, specify values for the following fields:
  Password. Type the password of the local Administrator account to be used for a virtual machine created by using this profile.
  Confirm. Retype the password.
  
  Note
  
  To prompt for a password when the user creates a virtual machine with the template, enter an asterisk (*) in the Admin Password field. If you leave the field blank, virtual machine creation will fail.
3. Click Product Key, and then type a valid key (or a valid Volume Licensing key) in Product Key. To require users to provide their own product key when they create a virtual machine, leave the field blank.
4. Click Time Zone, and then select the appropriate option from the Time Zone drop-down list box, or accept the default time zone.
To save the settings, do one of the following:

Option 1: If this guest operating system profile is a new or existing stand-alone profile, click Apply to save the settings.

Option 2: If this guest operating system profile is on the Guest Operating System page of the New Template Wizard (and you have completed any other settings you want to configure on this profile), click Next to save the settings and continue to the next page. Alternatively, to save your settings not only in this wizard but also as a stand-alone profile, click Save Profile, type a name in the Name field on the General tab (and, optionally, change any other settings); click Apply, click OK to return to the Guest Operating System page; click Next to continue to the next wizard page, and then complete the wizard as usual.

Option 3: If this guest operating system profile is on the properties page of an existing template, click Apply to save the settings.

How To Configure Guest Operating System Profile General Settings

Before You Start

See Also

Concepts

Additional resources