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VMware Windows Provisioning Password Configuration

In a VMware environment, you can set up things so that all users have the same credentials to access their Windows systems or you can let users choose their own passwords when submitting reservation requests. You specify which policy to use at the resource pool level.

If users are not allowed to choose their own password, issue the dpmutil set superuser command to store the Windows administrator password in the database for later retrieval. For example:

dpmutil -set -superuser

The command prompts for credentials with administrative privileges.

The Reservation Manager retrieves the password when emails are sent to users notifying them that their systems are ready. The password that you specify must match the password specified in the VMware customization specifications that are used when provisioning Windows systems.

Customization specifications are defined using the VMware Infrastructure Client. When using this approach, the administrator password for the virtual machine used to create the template must be set to a blank or empty value. When set to blank, the password defined in the customization specification is set during virtual machine provisioning.

When you add virtual machine templates to the Reservation Manager inventory, associate a saved customization specification with each template. All Windows customization specifications must be configured to use the same administrator password.

If users are allowed to choose their own password, the Windows administrator account is configured with the password the user has entered. The password is encrypted and stored with other reservation data. The user-specified password overrides the password defined in the customization specification. The requirement for setting up a VM template with a blank administrator password is also required to let end users specify their own password.