How to Remove Plug-ins from vCenter

Some back ground about the issue :

I removed a plugin from Add/remove Programs of vCenter server but still it was showing up in the vSphere client. I was able to  enable/disable it but could not remove it from the list of available plug-ins in Plug-in Manager. This becomes an issue specially when you don’t want people ( vmware admins and non-admins)  to see any such plugin when they  connect to vCenter server from the vSphere client.

To resolve the issue I followed this VMware KB article, which worked like a charm:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1025360 

Please also refer to these links for more info on How to Remove Plug-ins from vCenter :

http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2010/07/how-to-unregister-vcenter.html

http://www.viktorious.nl/2012/05/06/vcenter-howto-remove-a-plugin-from-the-plugin-manager/

http://www.running-system.com/how-to-remove-an-old-disabled-plugin-from-plugin-manager-in-your-vcenter/comment-page-1/

Creating CentOS template for vSphere ESX

I came across of online resources for creating CentOS template for vShphere/ESS, keeping here for self notes:

mentioned on this blog (http://ninet.org/2012/09/deploy-centos-6-from-vmware-template/) - Before you convert the VM to a template.

rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

sed -i ‘/HWADDR*/d’ /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

sed -i ‘/UUID*/d’ /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

(This also applies to SLES 11 SP2 (use /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth)

Another URL :https://peterpap.net/index.php/Creating_a_CentOS%5CRed_Hat_VMware_template

Windows Server 2012 template for VMware

Just used this link to create a Windows Server 2012 template for VMware. Sharing this as self note as well as for my fellow readers .

http://snowvm.com/2012/12/04/windows-server-2012-template-for-vmware/

Server 2012 template for VMware vCenter and Workstation

I came across this link on how to create a Server 2012 template for VMware workstation, which can be also helpful in case we have vSphere and vCenter:

Part 1: http://willcode4foodblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/creating-a-server-2012-golden-image-with-sysprep-and-vmware-workstation/

Part 2: http://willcode4foodblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/creating-a-server-2012-golden-image-with-sysprep-and-vmware-workstation-part-2-of-2/

While running sysprep  you might see this error “A fatal error occurred while trying to sysprep the machine” .

This is a know issue and Microsoft has released a Hotfix for it.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2693187

More info:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2036372

VM template for Server 2008 R2 on ESX or vSphere

I came across these two articles which can be very helpful to get started with creating  VM template for Server 2008 R2 on ESX or vSphere .

http://www.jasonsamuel.com/2010/05/07/how-to-build-a-vmware-vsphere-vm-template-for-windows-server-2008-r2/#comment-12141 

http://blog.vmpros.nl/2011/01/17/vmware-my-favorite-windows-2008r2-template-configuration/comment-page-1/#comment-4429 

I hope this helps and save time for someone.