VMware VM Deployment - Best practices?

Hi there,

I am new to Terraform. I would like to use it do deploy VMs in our VMware private cloud.
But I have some general questions.

I have read the description of the vsphere provider and I understand how to create a VM with it. But how can I install the OS into this VM?

Do I need to create a packer image first? Can I modify the VM during / after deployment to be uniqe, e.g. IP address, hostname, ssh host keys and so on?

Thanks in advance!

Regards, Christian