Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Start Order tab in the vApp's properties controls what happens when the user tells
vCenter Server to power on the vApp; you can see this in Figure 10.22. vCenter Server will
power on all the VMs in a group, wait the specii ed period of time, then power on the VMs in
the next group, wait the specii ed period of time, and so on. You can control the order in which
VMs should be started as well as the waiting period between the groups by editing the settings
shown in the Start Order tab.
Once the vApp is up and running, you can suspend the vApp or power down the vApp just
as you would suspend or power down a stand-alone VM. Depending on the settings on the Start
Order tab, the VMs within a vApp can be coni gured in different ways to respond to a Power Off
request to the vApp itself. As we recommended in the previous section, it's probably best to set
Guest Shutdown as the action to take in response to a request to power off the vApp. Shutdown
occurs in the reverse order from startup of the vApp.
Cloning a vApp
In much the same manner as cloning individual VMs, you can also clone a vApp.
Perform the following steps to clone a vApp:
1.
If the vSphere Web Client is not already running, launch it and connect to a vCenter
Server instance. You must connect to vCenter Server in order to clone a vApp.
2.
Navigate to either the Hosts And Clusters or VMs And Templates view; both of them
show the vApp objects in the inventory.
➢
3.
Right-click the vApp and select All vCenter Actions
Clone.
4.
In the Clone vApp Wizard, select a host, cluster, or resource pool on which to run the new
vApp. Because vApps require vSphere DRS, you cannot select a cluster on which vSphere
DRS is not enabled. Click Next.
5.
Supply a name for the new vApp, and select a logical inventory location for the vApp.
Click Next to continue.
6.
Select a target datastore or datastore cluster, and then click Next. Note that you do not
have the option to select a VM storage policy. While member VMs can have VM storage
policies assigned, you can't assign a VM storage policy to the vApp itself.
7.
Select the target virtual disk format. Click Next.
8.
If the vApp has specii c properties dei ned, you will next have the option to edit those
properties for the cloned vApp. Click Next when you are ready to continue.
9.
Review the settings for the new vApp, and use the Back button or the hyperlinks on the
left to go back and make changes if needed. If everything is correct, click Finish.
vCenter Server will clone the vApp container object and all VMs within the vApp. vCenter
Server will not, however, customize the guest OS installations inside the VMs in the vApp; the
administrator assumes the burden of ensuring that the VMs in the cloned vApp are customized
appropriately.
So far in this chapter, you've seen how to clone VMs, customize cloned VMs, create tem-
plates, work with OVF templates, and work with vApps. In the last section of this chapter,
