You can create a new vApp based on a vApp template stored in a catalog to which you have access.

If the vApp template is based on an OVF file that includes OVF properties for customizing its virtual machines, those properties are passed to the vApp. If any of those properties are user-configurable, you can specify the values.

For more information on VMs with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) devices, see Working with Virtual Machines in the VMware Cloud Director Tenant Portal.

Important: The guest OS passwords are part of VM and vApp templates and are visible to anyone authorized to access the templates. When you instantiate a VM or vApp from a template, the guest OS password remains the same. To improve the security posture of your VMs and vApps, after instantiation, change the guest OS password by editing the guest properties of the VM. See Change the Guest OS Customization of a Virtual Machine.

Prerequisites

  • If you want to create a vApp from a template in a public catalog, verify that you are either an organization administrator or a vApp author.
  • If you want to create a vApp from a template in an organization catalog to which you have access, verify that you are at least a vApp user.
  • To enable operations across vCenter instances where the source and destination vCenter instances are not the same, verify that the vCenter instances trust each other independently of VMware Cloud Director. To view the certificates that a vCenter instance trusts, see the Explore Certificate Stores Using the vSphere Client in the VMware vSphere Product Documentation. Verify that each vCenter instance trusts the other vCenter instances that it needs to interact with. See also KB 89906.
  • 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 instances, verify that the key provider used to encrypt each VM is registered on the target vCenter instance under the same name.
    • For operations across vCenter instances, verify that the VM and the target vCenter instance are on the same shared storage or that fast cross vCenter vApp instantiation is enabled.

Procedure

  1. From the primary left navigation panel, select Content Hub, from the secondary left panel, select Content, and select the vApp Templates tab.
    The list of templates appears in a grid view.
  2. Click the radio button next to the vApp template you want to use and click Create vApp.
  3. Enter a name and, optionally, a description of the vApp.
  4. Specify how long this vApp can run before it is automatically stopped in hours or days.
  5. Specify for how long the stopped vApp remains available before being automatically cleaned up in hours or days.
  6. Click Next.
  7. Select the virtual data center in which you want to create the vApp.
  8. Select a storage policy.
  9. Click Next.
  10. Configure the compute policies and settings.
    You can configure the vApp template with a vGPU policy. vGPU and placement policies are global and you can publish them to multiple provider VDCs and vApp templates include both sizing and placement or sizing and vGPU policy information.
  11. Review the vApp and organization VDC networks that are available in the template and, if necessary, edit the settings for each one.

    You can configure additional properties for virtual machines after you complete the wizard.

    Starting with VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1, you can edit the network settings of a vApp template during the instantiation of a vApp, including changing the network type of the vApp networks that are available in the vApp template.

    1. Select a vApp network to edit.
    2. From the Network Type drop-down menu, select a supported network type.
    3. If the vApp is not isolated, select a parent network.
    4. If the network is routed or isolated, you can edit its IP pools.
    5. Select the Advanced Networkingtoggle to enter manually additional network settings such as primary NIC, network adapter type, network, IP assignment and IP address settings for each virtual machine in the vApp.
  12. Click Next.
  13. Customize the hardware of the virtual machines in the vApp, and click Next.
    Option Description
    Number of virtual CPUs Enter the number of virtual CPUs for each virtual machine in the vApp.

    The maximum number of virtual CPUs that you can assign to a virtual machine depends on the number of logical CPUs on the host and the type of guest operating system that is installed on the virtual machine.

    Cores per socket Enter the number of cores per socket for each virtual machine in the vApp.

    You can configure how the virtual CPUs are assigned in terms of cores and cores per socket. Determine how many CPU cores you want in the virtual machine, then select the number of cores you want in each socket, depending on whether you want a single core CPU, dual-core CPU, tri-core CPU, and so on.

    Number of cores View the number of cores for each virtual machine in the vApp.

    The number changes when you update the number of virtual CPUs.

    Total memory (MB) Enter the memory in MB for each virtual machine in the vApp.

    This setting determines how much of the host memory is allocated to the virtual machine. The virtual hardware memory size determines how much memory is available to applications that run in the virtual machine. A virtual machine cannot benefit from more memory resources than its configured virtual hardware memory size.

    Hard disk properties Enter the size of the virtual machine hard disk in MB.
  14. On the Ready to Complete page, review your settings and click Finish.

Results

The new vApp appears in the card view.

What to do next

When you deploy a vApp template, VMware Cloud Director reserves in the VDC the full provisioned size of the template even when the actual disk size is lower. You can switch between this behavior and VMware Cloud Director using the actual disk size instead for operations, such as importing vApps and vApp templates, importing templates from vCenter, copying vApp templates, and moving vApp templates. To change the VMware Cloud Director behaviour, you use the VMware Cloud Director API and run the following configuration PUT API /1.0.0/site/configurations/urn:vcloud:configuration:storage.template.quota.useActualDiskSize with the following body. 
{
  "name": "storage.template.quota.useActualDiskSize",
  "typedValue": {
    "value": "true",
    "type": "StringEntry"
  }
}
Note: The vApp quota calculation remains unaffected and continues to use provisioned sizes. VMware Cloud Director calculates the total remaining VDC size by subtracting from the total size the provisioned size of vApps and the actual size of templates.