OVA doesn't get configured (e.g. no IP) with vSphere 8.0 U3

[mhoshi-vm]

Not so confident but I think this OVA doesn't work properly on later releases of vSphere (atm 8.0 u3)
It seems there is a problem with how it still (last update 2021 ... ) uses the VMwareGuestInfo cloud-init datasource, which I believe is deprecated.

The mechanism I have figured out is that this OVA first executes /var/lib/vmware/ovf-to-cloud-init.sh which is responsible of creating the userdata/metadata that is fed to cloud-init in the later phase (handled by systemd)
This script will evoke, ovf-rpctool set userdata "$encoded_userdata" and ovf-rpctool set userdata.encoding "base64" which I guess its suppose to configure the guestinfo.userdata and metadata.

However during startup cloud-init doesn't find that userdata, and thus fails to configure anything.
/var/log/cloud-init.log shows the following.

2024-11-14 20:57:18,725 - util.py[DEBUG]: Running command ['/usr/bin/vmware-rpctool', 'info-get guestinfo.metadata'] with allowed return codes [0] (shell=False, capture=True)
2024-11-14 20:57:18,729 - DataSourceVMwareGuestInfo.py[DEBUG]: No value found for key metadata
2024-11-14 20:57:18,729 - DataSourceVMwareGuestInfo.py[DEBUG]: loaded metadata {}
2024-11-14 20:57:18,729 - DataSourceVMwareGuestInfo.py[DEBUG]: Getting guestinfo value for key userdata
2024-11-14 20:57:18,729 - util.py[DEBUG]: Running command ['/usr/bin/vmware-rpctool', 'info-get guestinfo.userdata'] with allowed return codes [0] (shell=False, capture=True)
2024-11-14 20:57:18,731 - DataSourceVMwareGuestInfo.py[DEBUG]: No value found for key userdata
2024-11-14 20:57:18,731 - DataSourceVMwareGuestInfo.py[DEBUG]: Getting guestinfo value for key vendordata
2024-11-14 20:57:18,731 - util.py[DEBUG]: Running command ['/usr/bin/vmware-rpctool', 'info-get guestinfo.vendordata'] with allowed return codes [0] (shell=False, capture=True)
2024-11-14 20:57:18,733 - DataSourceVMwareGuestInfo.py[DEBUG]: No value found for key vendordata

Btw I get this permission error so it may be due to how no longer later vsphere versions don't allow to directly update this value.

root@localhost [ ~ ]# vmware-rpctool "info-set guestinfo.userdata aaa"
Permission denied

[mhoshi-vm]

Not elegant, but the current only workaround I found

[ Current workaround ]

• Deploy this OVA and start as guided and expect to fail (no IP, and no password configured)
• Force into shell using https://vmware.github.io/photon/assets/files/html/3.0/photon_troubleshoot/resetting-a-lost-root-password.html. Somehow get the IP address configured with sshd started from there.
• Save contents of /var/lib/vmware/encoded_metadata.txt , /var/lib/vmware/encoded_userdata.txt
• Destroy VM
• Redeploy OVA with the exact same values.
• Before starting the VM, check each mac address and match it to the values in /var/lib/vmware/encoded_metadata.txt (by decoding it)
• Before starting add the following from Advanced Config in the edit VM option. Use the save contents on the previous procedure.

[mhoshi-vm]

maybe related to #34 ?