Skip to main content

Manage vApps and virtual machines

Last update:

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).

Maximum size of virtual machines:

  • vCPU — 72 (Platinum cluster);
  • vRAM — 256 GB;
  • 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 dashboard: in the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → the Cloud Director section.
  2. Open the virtual data center page.
  3. Go to the Compute → vApps section.
  4. Click NEW → New vApp.
  5. Enter a vApp name.
  6. To create a virtual machine together with a vApp, click Add virtual machine.
  7. Enter a Name and a Computer Name.
  8. If you are creating a virtual machine from a template, in the Type field, select From Template.
  9. Optional: to power 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 volume 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.

  1. From the control panel, open the Cloud Director dashboard: in the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → the Cloud Director section.
  2. Open the virtual data center page.
  3. Go to the Compute → Virtual Machines section.
  4. Click New VM.
  5. Enter a Name and a Computer Name.
  6. In the Type field, select From Template.
  7. Optional: to power on the virtual machine immediately after creation, select the Power on checkbox.
  8. In the Templates block, select a virtual machine template (OS image).
  9. In the Storage Policy field, select the network volume type.
  10. Click OK.

Create a virtual machine in an existing vApp

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

Power on a virtual machine

If you need to power on the virtual machine with recustomization, see the Guest OS Recustomization article.

  1. From the control panel, open the Cloud Director dashboard: in the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → the Cloud Director section.
  2. Open the virtual data center page.
  3. Go to the Compute → Virtual Machines section.
  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 dashboard: in the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → the Cloud Director section.
  2. Open the virtual data center page.
  3. Go to the Compute → Virtual Machines section.
  4. To power 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 the Compute → vApps section and click New vApp.
  7. In the list of vApps, select the container where the vApp will be moved and click OK.

Power off a virtual machine

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

Delete a vApp

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

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

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

  1. From the control panel, open the Cloud Director dashboard: in the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → the Cloud Director section.
  2. Open the virtual data center page.
  3. Go to the Compute → vApps section.
  4. In the vApp ACTIONS menu, select Delete.
  5. Click DELETE.