Templates are primary copies of virtual machines, ready for instantiating. Migrating vApp templates to a site allows the tenants to deploy consistently configured virtual machines across multiple VMware Cloud Director instances.

A vApp template represents a collection of always powered off or suspended virtual machine images loaded with an operating system, configured applications, networks, and data.

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.3.1 introduced vApp templates migration across VMware Cloud Director instances. Version 4.4 replicates the following additional settings:
  • vApp networks with their connectivity.
  • Activated General > "Gold_Master."
  • Activated Customize VM settings.

View vApp Templates Migrations

First, choose a direction for the migration:
  • Click Incoming Replications.
  • Alternatively, click Outgoing Replications.

Then, on the right side, under Grouping to see the templates migrations, click Templates.

Create a New vApp Templates Migration

After under Grouping you click Templates,
  • Click the New Migration button.
  • Alternatively, click All Actions > New Migration.
The New Direction Migration wizard opens.
  1. On the Catalogs page, configure the source migration settings.
    1. Select a source catalog.

      The table shows only catalogs owned by the selected Source organization from the drop-down menu.

      The tenants also see shared catalogs between organizations. To show a shared catalog, the providers must select the source organization sharing it.

      Catalogs that are subscribed to other catalogs are excluded from the available destination catalogs only for tenants. For providers, they still appear, but attempting a migrate throws an error.

    2. Select one or more source vApp templates for migrating.
    3. Click Next.
  2. On the Destination VDC and Storage policy page, configure the destination settings.
    1. Select a virtual data center from the destination site as a replication target.
    2. Select the new destination storage policy for placing the recovered virtual machines.

      If the destination catalog has differing storage policies assigned, the selected storage policy only applies to the replica files and might differ from the storage policy of the migration catalog. Similar to vApp or virtual machine migrations, template migrations allow changing the storage policy before the recovery.

      The resulting vApp template matches the datastore catalog.

    3. Click Next.
  3. On the "Settings" page, configure the migration settings.
    1. Optionally, to compress the replication traffic, leave the toggle active. The traffic compression lowers the network requirements at the expense of higher CPU consumption for the Replicator Appliance instances.
    2. Optionally, delay the synchronization start and set a convenient time for the first synchronization of the templates migration.
      Note: By not scheduling a time for the initial synchronization, it must be performed later either manually or during Migrate.
    3. Click Next.
  4. On the Ready to complete page, verify the selected migration settings and click Finish.

Templates Migrations Settings

After under Grouping you click Templates, select one or more existing templates migrations, then click:
  • All Actions > Replication Settings and in the Edit Replication Settings window, configure the Compress replication traffic toggle, then click Apply.
  • All Actions > Network settings and in the Network Settings window, expand the vApps and virtual machines and configure the source vApp template networks connectivity with the destination networks after migrate, then click Apply.
  • All Actions > Change owner and in the Change Replication Owner window, choose a new owner organization, then click Apply:
    • System organization
    • Tenant organization
  • All Actions > Change storage policy in the Edit storage policy window, select the new storage policy placement, then click Apply.

Migrate vApp Templates

After under Grouping you click Templates, select one or more existing templates migrations, then:
  • Click Migrate.
  • Alternatively, click All Actions > Migrate.

The Migrate vApp Templates wizard opens.

  1. On the Destination Catalog page, select a destination catalog owned by the destination organization.
  2. On the Network Settings page, choose the destination network settings.
    • Apply preconfigured network settings on migrate keeps the source vApp networks with their connectivity.
    • Connect all VMs to network, then select the destination-network.
  3. On the Ready to Complete page, verify the selected migration settings and click Finish.

In the destination site, during the migration process, VMware Cloud Director Availability creates a temporary vApp that is an instantiated source template. After completing the migration, VMware Cloud Director Availability captures this temporary vApp in a template in the destination catalog. After a successful capture, it deletes the temporary vApp, leaving only the template.

There is a point in time during the template migration when VMware Cloud Director contains both the temporary vApp and the vApp template and vSphere shows both the virtual machines and their temp copies.

Synchronize the vApp Templates Migrations

After under Grouping you click Templates, select one or more existing templates migrations, then click:
  • All Actions > Sync performs an offline synchronization after clicking Sync. The disks of the virtual machines are locked and the source template is not unusable until the synchronization operation completes.
  • All Actions > Pause pauses the selected migrations and does not send data to the destination site after clicking Pause.
  • All Actions > Resume resumes the selected paused migrations and starts sending data again at the configured time after clicking Resume.
Migrating the templates, performing synchronization, or scheduling a delayed initial synchronization, each performs an offline synchronization that cannot be interrupted. This synchronization locks the source virtual machines disks. As a result, until this synchronization completes:
  • Cannot use the source virtual machines included in the template.
  • Cannot instantiate the source template.
Note: VMware Cloud Director Availability does not support replications for templates with one or more encrypted virtual machines. Tenants without the vApp: View VM and VM's Disks Encryption Status right see the template tagged with encryption set to N/A as all the virtual machines in the template have an encrypted value 'null'. For more information, see Create a Replication for Encrypted Virtual Machines.