Building vCloud Suite POC – Part 7: Create New vApp

Now the vCloud Director is up and running, new vApps can be created and populated with VMs. Before we begin, let’s define what a vApp actually is.

A vApp is a virtual system that contains one or more individual virtual machines, along with parameters that define operational details.

Source: vCloud Director Administrator’s Guide

So, let’s build a new vApp in the vCloud Director.

Build new vApp

  1. Open the organization URL created earlier in a web browser and log in with the organization administrator account. Be aware, this is not the system-wide administrator account!P7-S1-Login
  2. On the Home page, click Build New vApp.
  3. Enter a name and description for the vApp. Click Next.
  4. At this point you can add new VMs. I skipped this part as I will create a new VM later. Click Next.
  5. In the Configure Resources part, click Next as we don’t have any VMs at the moment.
  6. Click Next on the Configure Virtual Machines part.
  7. And click Next once again on the Configure Networking part.
  8. Review the settings and click Finish to create the vApp.
  9. Wait until the vApp is created.

The vApp is now ready and can be populated with VMs.

Create vApp Network

  1. Open the vApp that was just created.
  2. Select the Networking tab and click the green cross icon to add a vApp network.
  3. In the New vApp Network Wizard, select vApp Network and click Next.
  4. Provide the necessary network information and click Next.
  5. In the General section, provide a name and description.
  6. Review the settings and click Finish to create the vApp network.
  7. When the vApp network is created, it will be shown in the network summary.
  8. Next, connect the vApp network to the Organization network by selecting it from the drop down menu.P7-S7-vAppNetwork
  9. Also, make sure you check the Retain IP/MAC Resources setting.
  10. Don’t forget to click the Apply button on the right bottom of the page to save the changes.

Add VM to vApp

  1. First, open the vApp.P7-S2-OpenvApp
  2. Select the Virtual Manchines tab and click the green plus sign to add a new VM.
  3. In the New Virtual Machine wizard, click the New Virtual Machine button and enter a name, description, select virtual hardware version, OS, number of CPUs, memory, hard disk size, bus type (IDE for Windows XP) and number of NICs. Click OK and click Next.P7-S3-NewVM
  4. Select the storage profile and click Next.
  5. Select the “Show network adapter type” option, choose the NIC type, connect to the organization network and assign an IP address. In my case I used the static IP pool option. Click Next.P7-S4-ConfigVM
  6. In the Configure Networking part I choose to fence the vApp which will allow me to run identical VMs in different vApps in this organization.P7-S5-ConfigNetwork
  7. Next, review the settings and click Finish to complete.
  8. When the new VM is created, select the blue gear icon and click Insert CD/DVD from Catalog.P7-S6-InsertCD
  9. Select the Windows XP ISO image added earlier to the catalog and click Insert.
  10. Power on the VM and install the OS as you would normally do.

At this point, the basic vApp and vCloud Director environment is up and running.

Continue to part 8 where we will install the vCloud Connector and import more VMs to the vApp.

Cheers!

– Marek.Z

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