Manage vApps and virtual machines

Last update: November 19 2024

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 you create a vApp, you can create a virtual machine at once, to add it to the vApp later or move from another vApp.

1. From control panel open the Cloud Director panel: VMware-based cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to the section 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, in the field Type select From Template.
9. Optional: to enable the virtual machine immediately after creation, select the checkbox Power on.
10. Select the OS image.
11. In the field Storage Policy select the type of network drive.
12. Click 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 vApp creation Cloud Director creates a service vApp for this machine, but hides it. You can also create a virtual machine in an existing vApp.

VM from the template

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

New VM

1. From control panel open the Cloud Director panel: VMware-based cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to the section Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. Click New VM.
5. Enter Name and Computer Name.
6. In the field Type select New.
7. Optional: to enable the virtual machine immediately after creation, select the checkbox Power on.
8. In the field OS family select the OS family.
9. In the field Operating System select the OS version.
10. Optional: in the field Boot image select the ISO image.
11. In the block Compute configure the virtual machine configuration.
12. Optional: in the unit Storage click ADD and add a disk.
13. Optional: in the unit Networking click CUSTOMIZE and configure the network. For more information on setting up networks, see Networking.
14. Click OK.

Create a virtual machine in an existing vApp⁠

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

Turn on the virtual machine⁠

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

1. From control panel open the Cloud Director panel: VMware-based cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to the section Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. On the menu. ACTIONS of the virtual machine, select Power → Power On.

Move a virtual machine to another vApp⁠

1. From control panel open the Cloud Director panel: VMware-based cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to the section Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. To shut down the virtual machine, in the ACTIONS of the virtual machine, select Power Off.
5. On the menu. ACTIONS 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 press 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 control panel open the Cloud Director panel: VMware-based cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to the section Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. On the menu. ACTIONS of the virtual machine, select Power → Power Off → Power Off.

Delete the virtual machine⁠

1. From control panel open the Cloud Director panel: VMware-based cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to the section Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. On the menu. ACTIONS of the virtual machine, select Power → Power Off. The machine will be turned off.
5. On the menu. ACTIONS 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 control panel open the Cloud Director panel: VMware-based cloud → Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to the section Compute → vApps.
4. On the menu. ACTIONS vApp select Delete.
5. Click DELETE.