Set Administrator Password and Enable RDP on Windows VMs with VCF Automation

We're deploying Windows VMs with VCF Automation, but would like to set the Administrator password and enable RDP as part of the deployment process, how can we do this? VM Customization Specifications, let's go!

In vCenter (I'm running 8.0.3 in this lab) go to Policies and Profiles - VM Customization Specifications.

I've named mine Windows Customization Specification with a Target Guest OS of Windows.

I set the Administrator password here.

And turned on RDP here along with allowing the local firewall to allow RDP connections.

The full command looks like this:

cmd.exe /c reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server" /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f && netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="remote desktop" new enable=yes

Now that I have the VM Customization Specification I just need to call it from my VCF Automation Template/Blueprint.

If you want the full Template/Blueprint you can get it here. One released to the Service Broker Catalog it'll look like this.

I've requested a Windows VM using the Windows Customization Specification.

Once deployed you'll see it in vCenter and can confirm your Administrator password has been set to what you configured in the Windows Customization Specification and that you can RDP into it.

Hope this was helpful, enjoy!