Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template in the vSphere Web Client

Deploying a virtual machine from a template creates a virtual machine that is a copy of the template. The new virtual machine has the virtual hardware, installed software, and other properties that are configured for the template.

Prerequisites

You must have the following privileges to deploy a virtual machine from a template:

• Virtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on the data center or virtual machine folder.
• Virtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk on the data center or virtual machine folder. Required only if you customize the original hardware by adding a new virtual disk.
• Virtual machine .Provisioning.Deploy template on the source template.
• Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool.
• Datastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore.
• Network.Assign network on the network to which the virtual machine is assigned. Required only if you customize the original hardware by adding a new network card.
• Virtual machine .Provisioning.Customize on the template or template folder if you are customizing the guest operating system.
• Virtual machine .Provisioning.Read customization specifications on the root vCenter Server if you are customizing the guest operating system.
• Virtual machine .Inventory.Create new on the destination folder or data center.
• vApp.Import

Procedure

1. Start the Deploy From Template wizard.

   Option	Description
   Open the Deploy From Template wizard from any object in the inventory	Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, such as a data center, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host, and select New Virtual Machine > New Virtual Machine. On the Select a creation type page, select Deploy from template and click Next. On the Select a template page, select the template that you want to use. (Optional) Select the Customize the operating system check box to customize the guest operating system of the virtual machine. (Optional) Select the Customize this virtual machine's hardware check box to customize the virtual hardware of the virtual machine. (Optional) Select the Power On Virtual Machine after creation check box to power on the virtual machine after creation.
   Open the Deploy From Template wizard from a template	Right-click a template and select New VM from This Template.

2. On the Select a name and folder page, enter a unique name for the virtual machine and select a deployment location.
3. On the Select a compute resource page, select the host, cluster, resource pool, or vApp where the virtual machine will run and click Next.
   The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.

   Important:

   If the template that you deploy has an has an NVDIMM device and virtual PMem hard disks, the destination host or cluster must have available PMem resource. Otherwise, you cannot proceed with the task.

   If the template that you deploy does not have an NVDIMM device, but it has virtual PMem hard disks, the destination host or cluster must have available PMem resource. Otherwise, all the hard disks of the virtual machine will use the storage policy and datastore selected for the configuration files of the source template.

   If creating the virtual machine at the selected location causes compatibility problems, an alarm appears in the Compatibility pane.

4. On the Select storage page, configure the datastore.
   1. Select the format for the virtual machine's disks.

      Option	Action
      Same format as source	Use the same format as the source virtual machine.
      Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed	Create a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated during creation. Any data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand at a later time on first write from the virtual machine.
      Thick Provision Eager Zeroed	Create a thick disk that supports clustering features such as Fault Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time. In contrast to the thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take longer to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.
      Thin Provision	Use the thin provisioned format. At first, a thin provisioned disk uses only as much datastore space as the disk initially needs. If the thin disk needs more space later, it can grow to the maximum capacity allocated to it.

   2. (Optional) Select a storage policy from the VM Storage Policy drop-down menu.
      Storage policies specify storage requirements for applications that run on the virtual machine.
   3. Select the datastore location where you want to store the virtual machine files.
      Your selection affects the storage creation process.

      Option	Action
      Store all virtual machine files in the same location on a datastore.	(Optional) Apply a virtual machine storage policy for the virtual machine home files and the virtual disks from the VM storage policy drop-down menu. The list shows which datastores are compatible and which are incompatible with the selected virtual machine storage policy. Select a datastore and click Next.
      Store all virtual machine files in the same datastore cluster.	(Optional) Apply a virtual machine storage policy for the virtual machine home files and the virtual disks from the VM storage policy drop-down menu. The list shows which datastores are compatible and which are incompatible with the selected virtual machine storage profile. Select a datastore cluster. (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and select a datastore within the datastore cluster. Click Next.
      Store virtual machine configuration files and disks in separate locations.	Click Advanced. For the virtual machine configuration file and for each virtual disk, click Browse and select a datastore or datastore cluster. Apply a virtual machine storage policy from the VM storage profile drop-down menu. The list shows which datastores are compatible and which are incompatible with the selected virtual machine storage policy. (Optional) If you selected a datastore cluster and do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and select a datastore within the datastore cluster. Click Next.
      Store all virtual machine files in the same non-volatile memory disk	(Optional) Apply a virtual machine storage policy for the virtual machine home files and the virtual disks from the VM storage policy drop-down menu. Select a non-volatile memory disk and click Next.

5. (Optional) On the Customize hardware page, configure the virtual machine hardware, virtual machine options, and Storage DRS rules, and click Next.
   Customizing the guest OS prevents from conflicts that might occur if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names.

   Note: To access customization options for Windows guest operating systems, Microsoft Sysprep tools must be installed on the vCenter Server system. The Sysprep Tool is built into the Windows Vista and Windows 2008 and later operating systems. For details about this and other customization requirements, see Guest Operating System Customization Requirements.

   Option	Description
   Select an existing specification	Select a customization specification from the list.
   Create a specification	Click the Create a new specification icon, and complete the steps in the wizard.
   Create a specification from an existing specification	Select a customization specification from the list. Click the Create a spec from an existing spec icon, and complete the steps in the wizard.
6. On the Ready to complete page, review the information and click Finish.