Create a VM Template in Nutanix Prism Central

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Create a VM Template in Nutanix Prism Central

This article guides you through creating a generalized VM template in Nutanix Prism Central for use as a session host image in Nerdio Manager. For an overview of AVD Hybrid Support on Nutanix AHV, see AVD Hybrid on Nutanix AHV.

Note: This feature is in Public Preview.

Prerequisites

       System and environment requirements

The following are required before carrying out this procedure:

  • OS image — one of the following:

    • An ISO downloaded manually

    • An image exported from Azure Marketplace:

      1. Open the Azure Portal and create a VM from the desired Marketplace image.

      2. Navigate to the VM's OS disk resource.

      3. Select Export Disk under the disk blade to generate a time-limited SAS URL and download the VHD.

  • Nutanix VirtIO drivers

Important:

  • Azure Marketplace images ship with drivers tuned for the Azure hypervisor. These drivers are incompatible with Nutanix AHV — the VM does not boot if you use a SCSI bus that requires Nutanix VirtIO. Use SATA as the disk bus type when creating the VM in Prism Central. This allows the image to boot without the Nutanix VirtIO drivers pre-installed, after which you can install them inside the VM.

  • Do not enable BitLocker (Secure Boot/vTPM) on the source VM. Sysprep cannot generalize a volume protected by BitLocker, and Trusted Launch VMs cannot be used to create images.

Procedure

       Sign in to Prism Central

Sign in to Prism Central and switch to the Infrastructure application using the application switcher.

       Upload the image

If the OS image is not already present in Prism Central, upload it as follows:

  1. Navigate to Compute & Storage > Images.

  2. Select Add Image.

  3. Upload your OS image (ISO or VHD).

       Create a VM from the image

  1. Navigate to Compute & Storage > VMs.

  2. Select Create VM and configure the desired hardware (CPU, memory, etc.).

  3. In the Disks section, add a disk with the following settings:

    • Bus type: SATA

    • Operation: Clone from Image

    • Image: select your uploaded image

  4. Add a CD-ROM device (required to mount the VirtIO driver or system ISO during installation).

  5. Power on the VM and connect to it.

       Install VirtIO drivers and software

  1. Mount the Nutanix VirtIO ISO to the CD-ROM and install the drivers.

  2. Install any additional required software.

  3. Verify all drivers are working correctly via Device Manager. There should be no unknown or error devices.

  4. Once VirtIO drivers are installed and verified, change the disk bus type from SATA to SCSI for optimal performance.

       Generalize the VM with Sysprep

  1. Open CMD or PowerShell as Administrator and run:

    %WINDIR%\System32\Sysprep\sysprep.exe /generalize /shutdown /oobe /mode:vm

  2. Wait for Sysprep to complete. The VM shuts down automatically.

  3. If Sysprep fails, check the logs at:

    %WINDIR%\System32\Sysprep\Panther\

Warning: Do not power on the VM after Sysprep has generalized it. Booting a generalized VM corrupts its state — if this happens, you must run Sysprep /generalize again before creating the template.

       Create the VM template

  1. In Prism Central, navigate to Compute & Storage > VMs and locate the VM you wish to work with.

  2. Right-select the VM and select Create VM Template.

  3. Follow the prompts in the wizard, entering a name and optionally a description.

  4. Select Save.

       Clean up

Once the VM template is successfully created, the source VM can be deleted.

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