Basic Virtual Machine Management Workflows

With the basic virtual machine management workflows, you can perform basic operations on virtual machines, for example, create, rename, or delete a virtual machine, upgrade virtual hardware, and others.

Create custom virtual machine

Creates a virtual machine with the specified configuration options and additional devices.

Create simple dvPortGroup virtual machine

Creates a simple virtual machine. The network used is a Distributed Virtual Port Group.

Create simple virtual machine

Creates a virtual machine with the most common devices and configuration options.

Delete virtual machine

Removes a virtual machine from the inventory and datastore.

Get virtual machines by name

Returns a list of virtual machines from all registered vCenter Server instances that match the provided expression.

Mark as template

Converts an existing virtual machine to a template, not allowing it to start. You can use templates to create virtual machines.

Mark as virtual machine

Converts an existing template to a virtual machine, allowing it to start.

Move virtual machine to folder

Moves a virtual machine to a specified virtual machine folder.

Move virtual machine to resource pool

Moves a virtual machine to a resource pool. If the target resource pool is not in the same cluster, you must use the migrate or relocate workflows.

Move virtual machines to folder

Moves several virtual machines to a specified virtual machine folder.

Move virtual machines to resource pool

Moves several virtual machines to a resource pool.

Register virtual machine

Registers a virtual machine. The virtual machine files must be placed in an existing datastore and must not be already registered.

Reload virtual machine

Forces vCenter Server to reload a virtual machine.

Rename virtual machine

Renames an existing virtual machine on the vCenter Server system or host and not on the datastore.

Set virtual machine performance

Changes performance settings such as shares, minimum and maximum values, shaping for network, and disk access of a virtual machine.

Unregister virtual machine

Removes an existing virtual machine from the inventory.

Upgrade virtual machine hardware (force if required)

Upgrades the virtual machine hardware to the latest revision that the host supports. This workflow forces the upgrade to continue, even if VMware Tools is out of date. If the VMware Tools is out of date, forcing the upgrade to continue reverts the guest network settings to the default settings. To avoid this situation, upgrade VMware Tools before running the workflow.

Upgrade virtual machine

Upgrades the virtual hardware to the latest revision that the host supports. An input parameter allows a forced upgrade even if VMware Tools is out of date.

Wait for task and answer virtual machine question

Waits for a vCenter Server task to complete or for the virtual machine to ask a question. If the virtual machine requires an answer, accepts user input and answers the question.