Using Templates and vApps

This chapter describes how to use cloning, templates, and vApps to help streamline the deployment of virtual machines (VMs). It helps a user to clone VMs, create a VM template, deploy new VMs from a template, deploy a VM from an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) template, export a VM as an OVF template, and organize templates and media. The vCenter Server's customization specification works hand in hand with the tools for customizing VM clones. With vApps, vSphere administrators can combine multiple VMs into a single unit. The process for powering on or powering off a vApp is the same as for a standard VM. VMware offers a stand‐alone free product called vCenter Converter to help operating system installations on physical hardware and migrate them into a virtualized environment running vSphere.