Navisite Cloud Director (NCD) provides several methods for initiating vApp creation:

• At the vApps page, click +Create vApp.
• At the vDataCenter detail page, click vApps in the "Children" section, and then click +Create vApp.
• At the Template page for a vApp template, click Deploy.

All of these methods display the Create vApp page.

1. Enter a name for the new vApp in the "vApp Name" field. This name must be unique among all vApps within the vCloud instance selected in the following step.


2. Select a vCloud instance for the vApp from the "vCloud" drop-down menu. vClouds are identified by the physical location of the data center. The selected vCloud instance determines the vDataCenters (vDCs) available in the following step.


3. Select a vDC for the vApp from the "vDataCenter" drop-down menu. The vDC is the logical container in which vApps reside.


4. Click Next-> to display the Choose a Template page. The Choose a Template page allows you to select a virtual machine (VM) template for the VM that will populate your new vApp.
   
   
   
   Click the "Public Templates" tab to view basic provided templates, or the "My Templates" tab to view user-defined templates.
   
   To view a summary of a template's networking configuration, display the network and VM details for the template (as illustrated above) and click View in the "Networks" section.


5. Click Select for the template to be used for the new VM. To create a new template, select the "No Template (create from scratch)" option.
   
   If the selected template includes networking configuration, the following message appears:
   
   

   "This vApp template includes network configurations for one or more of its vApp networks, including DNS, IP Addressing, Firewall and NAT configuration. We can attempt to automatically apply these configurations to the networks after your vApp is created.
   
   Note: Some network configuration settings rely on specific networks, IP ranges and VMs to be in place. Network configurations that become invalid as a result of removing networks, VMs, or changing the gateway IPs will not be applied."

   
   If you choose to Apply network configurations in response to this prompt, the system applies the templatized networking settings on a best-effort basis to the newly created vApp. To the extent that this application is successful, the new vApp includes the same networking configuration stored in the vApp template. Any templatized networking configuration that no longer applies (either due to IP address changes or VM deletions/modifications) is simply omitted from the new vApp.


6. Click Next-> to display the Customize Networks page.
   
   
   
   By default, Navisite Cloud Director creates a new vApp network named "VM Network," and assigns a gateway address to it.
   


7. If necessary, modify the vApp network's gateway address in the "Gateway Address" field.


8. If necessary, select the parent vDC network connection for the vApp network from the "Connection" drop-down menu. Selecting “None” will result in an isolated vApp network, which will not be connected to other networks or the internet.
   
   

   Note: An isolated vApp network provides no connectivity outside of the vApp; it only connects its VMs together, with no connection to other networks (e.g., to a vDC network, other vApps, or the internet). Only communication within the vApp is possible. VMs in an isolated vApp are unable to utilize external network resources, and are inaccessible except by console access.
   
   Isolated vApp networks can be used for back-end communication (between a database and a server, for example). Refer to Identifying Isolated Networks for more information.

   
   Once the vApp has been created, the parent of a network cannot be changed. However, the network itself can later be deleted and replaced with a new network.


9. To make a direct vDC network connection available to the vApp, click Link vDC Network and select the desired vDC network connection for from the drop-down menu. The vDC network is added to the Customize Networks page list, and designated as a "Linked vDC Network."


10. Click Next-> to display the Customize VMs page.
    
    
    
    The Customize VMs page allows you to specify settings for the new VM contained in your vApp. The fields on the Customize VMs page are pre-populated with settings specified by the selected VM template.


11. If necessary, specify the VM name in the "Name" field. VM names must be unique within the vApp.


12. If necessary, specify the VM's hostname in the "Hostname" field.


13. If necessary, select a default storage policy for the VM (Standard or High) from the "Storage Policy" drop-down menu.


14. To set the VM to be locally backup-enabled upon initial creation, select the "Initial Backup" checkbox. Selecting this checkbox displays the "Offsite Backup" checkbox.


15. If the "Initial Backup" checkbox is selected, you can set the VM to be enabled for remote backup by selecting the "Offsite Backup" checkbox.


16. If necessary, select the administrator password setting for the VM from the "Admin password" drop-down field. These settings include:
    
    
    • Don't set password – use this setting if you do not want the VM password to be known and displayed in Navisite Cloud Director. The VM password remains the default, and is not displayed in the "Admin Password" field during VM configuration.
    
    
    • Auto-generate on customize – use this setting if you want a generated VM password to be known and displayed in Navisite Cloud Director. The auto-generated password is displayed in the "Admin Password" field during VM configuration.
    
    
    • Specify password – use this setting if you want a specified VM password to be known and displayed in Navisite Cloud Director. This option presents an entry field for you to manually specify a password. The specified password is displayed in this field.


17. For Microsoft Windows^® VMs, you can allow VMWare^® Tools to generate a new, unique Security Identifier (SID) by selecting the "Change SID" checkbox. The SID uniquely identifies user, group, and computer accounts in Windows, and is necessary in order for the VM to successfully join a domain.
    
    

    Note: Selecting the "Change SID" checkbox requires that you specify an administrator password as detailed above.



18. For Microsoft Windows^® VMs, you can select the "Antivirus " checkbox to enable antivirus service on the VM. The "Security Profile" field appears, populated by default with a profile value recommended for the VM. The value selected from the "Security Profile" drop-down menu is mapped to the Trend Micro^™ portal's "Policy" field for the VM's antivirus service.


19. If necessary, select an available network (a vApp network or available vDC network) to be connected to the VM's network interface controller (NIC) from the "Connected To" drop-down menu.


20. To add one or more new VMs to the vApp, click +Add VM at the top of the Customize VMs page, select a VM template, and repeat Steps 11 - 19 above for each VM to be added


21. Click Finish to create the vApp. When the task completes, the newly created vApp is listed at the vApps page.

Note: You can monitor the progress of the vApp creation by clicking the Recent Tasks icon in the upper right corner of the page.