Part 5 – VCF Automation – Windows Template

So in the previous post we created a Ubuntu Template, but we also did some stuff to ensure that the Catalog would be visible. So if you’re reading this post just for the windows template, you may want to review the Ubuntu post for this stuff.

Property Group

So we need to add a property to the propery group that’s missing for windows.
Navigate to Assembler, Design, Property Groups and select your previously created defaultServervalues. Add a New Property called search, choose string, and assign it the value of your domain and subdomains within quotation marks, and comma separated like such: “rainpole.io”, “sfo.rainpole.io”

A not so secret secret

If you’re going to be working with programming, scripting, or automation, you better learn to frequent github, stackoverflow, and other forums. Someone is likely to have done what you’re looking to do already and you can either use their code, or adapt it to work as you require. If you where to only rely on manuals and documentation you would not get far.

With that said most of the CloudConfig in this template comes from Sam Perrins awesome work found here: https://samperrin.com/posts/vra-aa-windows-cloudbase-init-function-update/
I’ve added/removed just a few things.

Create the windows template

To avoid any issues with copy/paste, and maybe get a newer version, or more advanced version, all the templates are available at https://github.com/maxiepax/vcf-automation

By now, you’re hopefully a bit more familiar with how to create templates, so head over to Assembler, Select Design in the top menu, Templates, New From, Blank Canvas.
Name it Windows VM, and select your project.

The IAC code is largely the same as the Ubuntu template, so no need to repeat myself. The changes would be that we are now pointing to the windows image mappings, that you can select the size of the DATA disk. I’ve added so that your user gets added to the Remote Desktop Users, and the local Administrators group for the VM created.

Just copy/paste this into the right hand side of the canvas.

formatVersion: 1
inputs:
  hostname:
    type: string
    title: Hostname
    description: The name of the virtual machine
  osversion:
    type: string
    title: Windows Version
    description: Choose what version of windows
    default: windows-server-2022
    oneOf:
      - title: Windows 2019
        const: windows-server-2019
      - title: Windows 2022
        const: windows-server-2022
  size:
    type: string
    title: VM Size
    description: |-
      <b> Select the size of deployment </b></br>
      Small: 1 vCPU - 2GB ram - 40GB disk </br>
      Medium: 2 vCPU - 4GB ram - 40GB disk </br>
      Large: 4 vCPU - 16GB ram - 40GB disk </br>
    enum:
      - small
      - medium
      - large
    default: medium
  environment:
    type: string
    title: Environment
    oneOf:
      - title: Development
        const: development
      - title: Production
        const: production
  costcenter:
    type: integer
    title: Cost Center
    minLength: 5
    maxLength: 5
  backup:
    type: string
    default: backup:24h31d
    oneOf:
      - title: 12 hours, 31 day retention
        const: backup:12h31d
      - title: 24 hours, 31 day retention
        const: backup:24h31d
      - title: none
        const: backup:declined
  datadisk:
    type: integer
    title: Datadisk size
    minimum: 0
    maximum: 1000
    default: 0
  ad_user:
    type: string
    title: AD User
    description: Provide the ad user that should be permitted RDP login and Administration priviliges.
    default: ''
resources:
  Network:
    type: Cloud.vSphere.Network
    properties:
      networkType: existing
      constraints:
        - tag: env:${input.environment}
  Cloud_vSphere_Disk_1:
    type: Cloud.vSphere.Disk
    allocatePerInstance: true
    properties:
      capacityGb: ${input.datadisk}
  Cloud_vSphere_Machine_1:
    type: Cloud.vSphere.Machine
    properties:
      tags:
        - key: costcenter
          value: ${input.costcenter}
        - key: dtap
          value: ${input.environment}
        - key: backup
          value: ${input.backup}
      image: ${input.osversion}
      flavor: ${input.size}
      networks:
        - network: ${resource.Network.id}
      attachedDisks:
        - source: ${resource.Cloud_vSphere_Disk_1.id}
      cloudConfig: |
        Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="==NewPart=="
        MIME-Version: 1.0

        --==NewPart==
        Content-Type: text/cloud-config; charset="us-ascii"
        MIME-Version: 1.0
        Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
        Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="cloud-config"

        set_hostname: ${input.hostname}

        --==NewPart==
        Content-Type: text/x-shellscript; charset="us-ascii"
        MIME-Version: 1.0
        Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
        Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="INIT.ps1"

        #ps1_sysnative

        function CustomLog ($LogMessage) {
          $LogFilePath = "C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\log\CustomLog.txt"
          Write-Output "$((Get-Date).ToString('T')) $LogMessage" | Out-File -FilePath $LogFilePath -Append
        }

        function DomainDnsTest {
          $DomainDnsTestResult = (Test-NetConnection -ComputerName "${propgroup.defaultServerValues.domain}" -Port 389).TcpTestSucceeded
          return $DomainDnsTestResult
        }

        function DomainJoinStatus {
          $DomainJoinStatusResult = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem).PartOfDomain
          return $DomainJoinStatusResult
        }

        function WaitForNetwork {
          CustomLog("-- Starting WaitForNetwork. Starting status $((Get-NetAdapter -Name Ethernet0).Status)")
          While ((Get-NetAdapter -Name Ethernet0).Status -ne "Up") {
            CustomLog("-- Waiting for network Ethernet0 to be up. Current status $((Get-NetAdapter -Name Ethernet0).Status)")
            Start-Sleep -Seconds 2
          }
          CustomLog("-- Ending WaitForNetwork. Ending status $((Get-NetAdapter -Name Ethernet0).Status)")
        }

        function WaitForDns {
          CustomLog("-- Starting WaitForDns. Starting status $(DomainDnsTest)")
          While ((DomainDnsTest) -ne "True") {
            CustomLog("-- Waiting for DNS to succeed. Current status $(DomainDnsTest)")
            Start-Sleep -Seconds 2
          }
          CustomLog("-- Ending WaitForDns. Ending status $(DomainDnsTest)")
        }

        function JoinDomain {
          CustomLog("-- Starting JoinDomain")
          WaitForNetwork
          WaitForDns
          $DomainJoinCreds = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential "${propgroup.defaultServerValues.adSvcAccount}@${propgroup.defaultServerValues.domain}" ,(ConvertTo-SecureString -String "${secret.adSvcAccountPassword}" -AsPlainText -Force)
          Add-Computer -DomainName "${propgroup.defaultServerValues.domain}" -Credential $DomainJoinCreds -Restart:$false -Force
          CustomLog("-- Ending JoinDomain")
        }

        function WaitForDomainJoin {
          CustomLog("-- Starting WaitForDomainJoin. Starting status $(DomainJoinStatus)")
          While ((DomainJoinStatus) -ne "True") {
            CustomLog("---- Waiting for Domain to be True. Current status $(DomainJoinStatus)")
            CustomLog("---- Starting Sleep")
            Start-Sleep -Seconds 10
            CustomLog("---- Ending Sleep")
            JoinDomain
          }
          CustomLog("-- Ending WaitForDomainJoin. Ending status $(DomainJoinStatus)")
        }

        CustomLog("Set Local Firewall - Started")
        Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4-In)" -enabled True
        Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Remote Desktop"
        Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters' -Name 'NV Domain' -Value "${propgroup.defaultServerValues.domain}"
        Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters' -Name SyncDomainWithMembership -Value "0"
        Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server' -name "fDenyTSConnections" -value 0
        CustomLog("Set Local Firewall - Finished")

        CustomLog("Initialise Disk - Started")
        Get-Disk | Where-Object PartitionStyle -Eq "RAW" | Initialize-Disk -PassThru | New-Partition -AssignDriveLetter -UseMaximumSize | Format-Volume -NewFileSystemLabel "DATA"
        CustomLog("Initialise Disk - Finished")

        CustomLog("Set DNS Settings - Started")
        Get-NetAdapter | Set-DnsClient -RegisterThisConnectionsAddress $False
        Get-NetAdapter | Set-DnsClient -UseSuffixWhenRegistering $False
        Get-NetAdapter | Set-DnsClient -ConnectionSpecificSuffix ${propgroup.defaultServerValues.domain}
        Set-DnsClientGlobalSetting -SuffixSearchList @(${propgroup.defaultServerValues.search})
        CustomLog("Set DNS Settings - Finished")

        CustomLog("Domain Join - Started")
        WaitForDomainJoin
        CustomLog("Domain Join - Finished")

        CustomLog("Tidying Logs - Started")
        (Get-Content "C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\log\cloudbase-init.log") -replace "${secret.adSvcAccountPassword}","<DOMAIN-JOIN-PASSWORD>" | Set-Content "C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\log\cloudbase-init.log" -Verbose
        CustomLog("Tidying Logs - Finished")

        CustomLog("Adding user priviliges - Started")
        add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Remote Desktop Users" -Member "${propgroup.defaultServerValues.domain}\${input.ad_user}"
        add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators" -Member "${propgroup.defaultServerValues.domain}\${input.ad_user}"
        CustomLog("Adding user priviliges - Finished")

        CustomLog("Ejecting CD Drives - Started")
        $drives = Get-WmiObject Win32_Volume -Filter "DriveType=5"
        $drives | ForEach-Object { (New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).Namespace(17).ParseName($_.Name).InvokeVerb("Eject") } -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
        CustomLog("Ejecting CD Drives - Finished")

        CustomLog("Preparing to Reboot - Started")
        shutdown /r /t 10
        CustomLog("Preparing to Reboot - Finished")

Publish it

So just as before, click Version , give it a version number, a description/changelog , and check Release this version to catalog, finally click Create.

Make it look pretty

Head over to Service Broker, you should now already see your Windows VM. It has a stock image though, but you already know how to change that, and make a custom form if you want!