Manage vApps and virtual machines

Last update: June 04 2025

Manage vApps and virtual machines

A vApp is a container in Cloud Director with virtual machines grouped together to solve a specific task.

With vApp, you can manage multiple virtual machines as a single virtual machine (powered on, powered off, cloned).

Maximum size of virtual machines:

• vCPU — 72 (Platinum cluster);
• vRAM is 256GB;
• virtual disk size — 10 TB.

Create a vApp⁠

You can create a vApp from scratch or from an OVF/OVA template. You can create templates from a vApp.

When creating a vApp, you can create a virtual machine immediately, add it to the vApp later, or move it from another vApp.

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: from the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to Compute → vApps.
4. Click NEW → New vApp.
5. Enter the name of the vApp.
6. To create a virtual machine with the vApp, click Add virtual machine.
7. Enter Name and Computer Name.
8. If you are creating a virtual machine from a ready-made template, select From Template in the Type field.
9. Optional: To power on the virtual machine as soon as it is created, check the Power on checkbox.
10. Select the OS image.
11. In the Storage Policy field, select the type of network disk.
12. Press OK.
13. Click Create. Creating a virtual machine in a vApp container will take time.

Create a virtual machine⁠

When you create a virtual machine without creating a vApp, Cloud Director creates a service vApp for that machine, but hides it. You can also create a virtual machine in an existing vApp.

VM from the template

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: from the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. Click New VM.
5. Enter Name and Computer Name.
6. In the Type field, select From Template.
7. Optional: To power on the virtual machine as soon as it is created, check the Power on checkbox.
8. In the Templates box, select a virtual machine template (OS image).
9. In the Storage Policy field, select the type of network disk.
10. Press OK.

New VM

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: from the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. Click New VM.
5. Enter Name and Computer Name.
6. In the Type field, select New.
7. Optional: To power on the virtual machine as soon as it is created, check the Power on checkbox.
8. In the OS family field, select the OS family.
9. In the Operating System field, select the OS version.
10. Optional: select ISO image in the Boot image field.
11. In the Compute block, configure the virtual machine configuration.
12. Optional: in the Storage block, click ADD and add a disk.
13. Optional: In the Networking block, click CUSTOMIZE and configure the network. For more information on configuring networks, see Working with Networks.
14. Press OK.

Create a virtual machine in an existing vApp⁠

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: from the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to Compute → vApps.
4. From the ACTIONS vApp menu, select Add → Add VM.
5. Enter the name of the virtual machine.
6. Press ADD VIRTUAL MACHINE.
7. Enter Name and Computer Name.
8. If you are creating a virtual machine from a ready-made template, select From Template in the Type field.
9. Select OS.
10. Select Storage Policy (network disk type).
11. Press OK → ADD.

Turn on the virtual machine⁠

If you need to enable the virtual machine with recastomization, use the Recastomize Guest OS instructions.

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: from the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. From the ACTIONS menu of the virtual machine, select Power → Power On.

Move a virtual machine to another vApp⁠

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: from the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. To shut down the virtual machine, from the ACTIONS menu of the virtual machine, select Power Off.
5. From the ACTIONS menu of the virtual machine, select Move to move or Copy to copy the virtual machine.
6. Optional: To create a new container for the migrated vApp, go to Compute → vApps and click New vApp.
7. In the vApps list, select the container where the vApp will be moved to and click OK.

Shut down the virtual machine⁠

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: from the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. From the ACTIONS menu of the virtual machine, select Power → Power Off → Power Off.

Delete the virtual machine⁠

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: from the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. From the ACTIONS menu of the virtual machine, select Power → Power Off. The machine will be turned off.
5. From the ACTIONS menu of the virtual machine, select Delete.

Uninstall vApp⁠

Deleting a vApp will delete all virtual machines within that vApp.

Cloud Director does not support saving individual virtual machines — only the entire vApp. To save individual virtual machines, move them before deleting the vApp.

Before deleting, you can create a vApp container template to save data from all virtual machines inside the container.

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: from the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to Compute → vApps.
4. From the ACTIONS vApp menu, select Delete.
5. Press DELETE.