Manage vApps and virtual machines

Last update: October 05 2026Open in Markdown

A vApp is a container in Cloud Director that holds virtual machines grouped together to perform a specific task.

With a vApp, you can manage multiple virtual machines as a single unit (powering on, powering off, cloning).

Recommended maximum virtual machine size

Cluster	vCPU	vRAM	Virtual disk size
Silver-1	72	512 GB	10 TB
Gold-1	72	512 GB	10 TB
Gold-1 (multizone)	72	512 GB	10 TB
Platinum-1	144	512 GB	10 TB
AMD HiFreq-1	96	640 GB	10 TB

Create 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 right away, add it to the vApp later, or move it from another vApp.

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: in the top menu, click Products → Cloud powered by VMware → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to Compute → vApps.
4. Click NEW → New vApp.
5. Enter the vApp name.
6. To create a virtual machine along with the vApp, click Add virtual machine.
7. Enter Name and Computer Name.
8. If you are creating a virtual machine from a pre-configured template, in the Type field, select From Template.
9. Optional: to turn on the virtual machine immediately after creation, select the Power on checkbox.
10. Select an OS image.
11. In the Storage Policy field, select the network disk type.
12. Click OK.
13. Click Create. Creating a virtual machine in a vApp container will take some time.

Create a virtual machine

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

VM from template

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: in the top menu, click Products → Cloud powered by VMware → 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 turn on the virtual machine immediately after creation, select the Power on checkbox.
8. In the Templates block, select the virtual machine template (OS image).
9. In the Storage Policy field, select the network disk type.
10. Click OK.

New VM

1. From the Control Panel, open the Cloud Director panel: in the top menu, click Products → Cloud powered by VMware → 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 turn on the virtual machine immediately after creation, select 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: in the Boot image field, select an ISO image.
11. In the Compute block, configure the virtual machine settings.
12. Optional: in the Storage block, click ADD and add a disk.
13. Optional: in the Networking block, click CUSTOMIZE and configure the network. Learn more about configuring networks in Working with networks.
14. Click OK.

Create a virtual machine in an existing vApp

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

Power on a virtual machine

If you need to power on a virtual machine with recustomization, see the instructions in Guest OS recustomization.

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

Move a virtual machine to another vApp

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

Power off a virtual machine

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

Delete a virtual machine

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

Delete a vApp

When you delete a vApp, all virtual machines inside this vApp will also be deleted.

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 deletion, 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: in the top menu, click Products → Cloud powered by VMware → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to Compute → vApps.
4. In the vApp ACTIONS menu, select Delete.
5. Click DELETE.