Hi folks,
I'm looking to kick off the VM Guest Customization process without actually cloning a VM.
I want to take a LUN filled with VMs, and clone it on the storage level, then re-present that LUN as a new datastore filled with VMs. Then I need those VMs to be joined to the domain, so in order for that to happen I need to sysprep each of the VMs on the new datastore and rename them, without initiating a VM clone operation first (the VMs have already been cloned on the datastore level).
I know that the guest customization adds a new variable to the VMX file of the VM to be customized - tools.deployPkg.fileName = "imcXXXX.tmp", and that the file referenced in that variable is uploaded to the same ESX datastore folder as the VMX. What I need to do is find a way to edit this file and inject a new sysprep.inf with a new VM name in it.
I've tried looking at the imcXXXX.tmp file - it's an archive and it contains some exes along with a sysprep.inf. However, I can't edit the file, and I don't know the exact format of the file so I can't create a new one containing my edited sysprep.inf.
Does anyone know if it's possible to make changes to these imcXXXX.tmp files, and if so, how do I do it? 
Thanks,
- Brian