Hello,

I am interested in deploying several RHEL 4 Update 8 virtual machines for creation of a test environment.

Here are the steps I am taking:

• In off hours, P2V/V2V the production machines and convert them to templates
• Deploy the virtual machines with a customization specification that changes hostname, IP address

I am interested in how these processes are done and if there are any options for further customization.

• Are the machines brought on the network when they are powered on, before they are reconfigured? Is there a potential IP address conflict?

• Is there an option to run additional scripts which reside on the guest as a part of the reconfiguration? For example, restoring an Oracle Database. This is an option with Windows guests and sysprep, but I have been unable to locate anything showing a RHEL equivalent.

I am dealing with a multi tier application. The main issue I am attempting to mitigate is that the application servers reference database servers by hostname and in tnsnames files. I am interested in scripting the reconfiguration of the application in the deployment so that the app/db servers are pointing to the test environment.

I am OK with placing the 'cleanup' script on the source and executing it after the machine has been brought up. I am interested in the automation of the script's execution post clone/boot, as well as if there could be an IP address conflict.

(cross posted to VMTN's ESX 4 community)