Working with vApp Templates

View a vApp Template

You can see the list of vApp templates that are available in the catalogs, to which you have access. You can view a vApp template and explore the virtual machines that it contains.

You can access only vApp templates that are included in catalogs items that have been shared to you. For more information about sharing catalogs, see Share a Catalog.

Prerequisites

This operation requires the rights included in the predefined vApp Author role or an equivalent set of rights.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select vApp Templates. The list of templates appears in a grid view.

2. (Optional) Configure the grid view to contain elements you want to see.
   a. From the grid view, click the grid editor icon () below the list of vApp templates.
   
   b. Select the elements you want to include in the grid view, such as version, status, catalog, owner, and so on.
   
   c. Click OK.

The grid displays the elements you selected for each vApp template in the list.

3. To view the virtual machines included in a vApp template, click the vApp template name. The virtual machines that the vApp template includes display in a grid.

4. (Optional) To select the elements you want to see in the grid view, click the grid editor icon ( ) below the list of virtual machines.

a Select the elements you want to include in the grid view.

b Click OK.

Create a vApp Template from an OVF File

You can upload an OVF package to create a vApp template in a catalog.

Cyfuture Cloud Console supports the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) and Open Virtualization Appliance (OVA) specifications. If you upload an OVF file that includes OVF properties for customizing its virtual machines, those properties are preserved in the vApp template. For information about creating OVF packages, see the OVF Tool User Guide and Cyfuture Cloud VMWare vCenter Converter User's Guide

Prerequisites

This operation requires the rights included in the predefined Catalog Author role or an equivalent set of rights.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select vApp Templates. The list of templates appears in a grid view.

2. Click New.

3. Enter a URL address of the OVF file, or click the Upload icon () to browse to a location accessible from your computer and select the OVF/OVA template file.

The location might be your local hard drive, a network share, or a CD/DVD drive. The supported file extensions include .ova, .ovf, .vmdk, .mf, .cert, and .strings. If you select to upload an OVF file, which references more files than you are trying to upload, for example, a VMDK file, you must browse and select all files.

4. Verify the details of the OVF/OVA template you are about to deploy and click Next.

5. Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the vApp template, and click Next.

6. From the Catalog drop-down menu, select the catalog, to which you want to add the template.

7. Review the vApp template settings, and click Finish.

Results

The new vApp template appears in the templates grid view.

Import a Virtual Machine from VMWare vCenter Server as a vApp Template

If you have system administrator rights, you can import VMWare vCenter Server VMs to Cyfuture Cloud Console as vApp templates in catalogs.

Prerequisites

To see and import VMs from VMWare vCenter Server as vApp templates, verify that you have system administrator rights.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select vApp Templates. The list of templates appears in a grid view.

2. Click Import from VMWare vCenter.

3. From the drop-down menu, select a VMWare vCenter Server instance from which to import the vApp template.

4. Select a template from the list of virtual machines.

5. Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the vApp template.

6. From the drop-down menu, select a catalog to which to add the vApp template.

7. (Optional) To delete the source virtual machine, toggle on the Move Virtual Machine option.

8. (Optional) Mark the vApp template as a preferred template in the catalog.

9. Click Import.

Assign a VM Placement Policy and a VM Sizing Policy to a vApp Template

To associate the VMs of a vApp template with specific VM placement and VM sizing policies, you can tag individual VMs of a vApp template with the policies you want to assign.

Starting with Cyfuture Cloud Console 10.0, you can allow the users to change the predefined VM placement or VM sizing policies while editing a VM.

Note: After you upgrade to Cyfuture Cloud Console 10.0 or later, all preexisting template taggings become modifiable. If you want to disallow the changes to the predefined VM placement or VM sizing policies, you must deselect the Modifiable check box for the policies that you want to be unchangeable.

Prerequisites

• This operation requires the right to edit a vApp template.
• Verify that you have at least one vApp template in your Cyfuture Cloud Console environment.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select vApp Templates. The list of templates appears in a grid view.

2. Select the radio button next to the vApp template you want to tag, and click Tag with Compute Policies.

3. If you want to assign a VM placement policy to a VM in the vApp template, select a policy from the VM Placement Policy drop-down menu on the row corresponding to the VM.

4. If you want to assign a VM sizing policy to a VM in the vApp template, select a policy from the VM Sizing Policy drop-down menu on the row corresponding to the VM.

5. (Optional) To allow the users to change the predefined VM placement or VM sizing policies while editing a VM, select the Modifiable check box under the policy drop-down menu.

6. Click Tag.

Download a vApp Template

You can download a vApp template from a catalog as an OVA file to your local machine.

Prerequisites

This operation requires the rights included in the predefined Catalog Author role or an equivalent set of rights.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select vApp Templates. The list of templates appears in a grid view.

2. Click the list bar ( ) on the left of the vApp template you want to download, and selectDownload.

Note: You can download vApp templates from your organization catalogs. If you are an organization administrator, you can download vApp templates from a public catalog. Otherwise, the Download button is dimmed.

3. (Optional) To preserve the UUIDs and MAC addresses of the virtual machines in the downloaded OVA package, select the Preserve identity information check box.

4. Click OK and wait for the download to complete.

The OVA file is saved to the default download location of your Web browser.

Delete a vApp Template

You can delete a vApp template from an organization catalog. If the catalog is published, the vApp template is also deleted from public catalogs.

Prerequisites

This operation requires the rights included in the predefined vApp Author role or an equivalent set of rights.

Procedure

1. In the top navigation bar, click Libraries and in the left panel, select vApp Templates. The list of templates appears in a grid view.

2. Click the list bar ( ) on the left of the vApp template you want to delete, and select Delete.

3. Confirm the deletion.

The deleted vApp template is removed from the grid view.