Import a Virtual Machine from vCenter Server as a vApp

If you have system administrator rights, you can import vCenter Server VMs as vApps to VMware Cloud Director.

Importing a virtual machine does not keep the VM reservation, limit, and shares settings configured in vCenter Server. Imported VMs get their resource allocation settings from the organization virtual data center (VDC) on which they reside.

Note: When you create VM in vCenter Server, it might take some time for the VM to appear in the VMware Cloud Director inventory.

If you want to define different storage profiles for each disk when importing VMs from vCenter Server, you can use the VMware Cloud Director API. See the VMware Cloud Director API Schema Reference.

Starting with 10.4.2, importing a VM containing a TPM device as a vApp preserves the TPM device for the copy and move operations.

Prerequisites

• To see and import virtual machines (VMs) from vCenter Server, verify that you have system administrator rights.
• For VMware Cloud Director 10.4.2 and later, if you want work with VMs with TPM devices, verify that the following criteria are met.
  • A VDC that supports TPM backs the VM.
  • For operations across vCenter Server instances, verify that the key provider used to encrypt each VM is registered on the target vCenter Server instance under the same name.
  • For operations across vCenter Server instances, verify that the VM and the target vCenter Server instance are on the same shared storage or that fast cross vCenter Server vApp instantiation is enabled. See the fast cross vCenter Server vApp instantiation information in the VMware Cloud Director 10.4 Release Notes.

Procedure

1. On the Virtual Data Center dashboard screen, click the card of the virtual data center you want to explore, and from the left panel, select vApps.
2. Click New and select Import from vCenter.
3. From the drop-down menu, select a vCenter Server instance from which to import a virtual machine.
4. Select a virtual machine to import.
   If the VM and its disks reside on storage that is compatible with the target VDC, and the vNIC is connected to a network recognized by VMware Cloud Director, you can import powered on VMs.
5. Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the vApp.
6. From the drop-down menu, select a VDC in which to store and run the vApp.
7. (Optional) From the drop-down menu, select a storage policy for the vApp.
8. If you want VMware Cloud Director to take ownership of the VM, toggle on the Move Virtual Machine option.

   When you turn on the Move Virtual Machine toggle, VMware Cloud Director starts managing the VM instead of vCenter Server. VMware Cloud Director attempts to import the VM without deleting the source VM. If the datastore, storage policy, or other factors are incompatible with the selected VDC, VMware Cloud Director clones the VM and deletes the source VM. If you want to keep the source VM and VMware Cloud Director to manage a copy, leave the toggle turned off.

9. Click Import.