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NCD – Viewing and Updating vApp Configuration and Status


A vApp (or virtual application) is a logical container for virtual resources. A vApp can contain VMs (virtual machines), networks, and networking rules.

What is a vApp?

vApps Page

The vApps page displays a summary table of vApps in Navisite Cloud Director. From the vApps page you can create and upload new vApps, and access vApp detail pages to review, edit, and delete existing vApps.

Viewing the vApps Page

At the Navisite Cloud Director Dashboard page, click vApps in the navigation pane on the left side of the page to display the vApps page.


vApps Page Display Controls

Click the My vApps/All vApps selector to filter the vApps page table content.

  • My vApps displays vApps to which you have write access, either because you are the vApp owner or because they have been shared with you.
  • All vApps displays vApps to which you have read access.
 
To download the displayed table data as a .csv file, click the "Download" icon above the table.
 

Creating a vApp

At the vApps page, click +Create vApp.

Other methods for initiating vApp creation include:
  • 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.
See Creating a New vApp for details on creating a new vApp.


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


Uploading a vApp

Navisite Cloud Director allows you to upload vApps to NCD using VMware's OVF Tool, or the vCloud Director user interface. To initiate a vApp upload from the vApps page, click Upload.

See Uploading and Downloading vApps, Templates, and Media for details on uploading a vApp to NCD.

vApp Detail Page

The vApp detail page provides summary information and configuration options for a selected vApp.

Viewing the vApp Detail Page

To review or edit an individual vApp, click the vApp's name in the vApps page table to display its vApp detail page.

 


The vApp detail page displays:
  • Status – A status display of the current power status of its child VMs. vApp status values include:

    • Running – All VMs within the vApp are powered on.

    • Partially Running – Indicates an inconsistent power status of VMs within the vApp (i.e., some VMs in the vApp are powered on, others are not).

    • Suspended – All VMs within the vApp are suspended.

    • Stopped – All VMs within the vApp are powered off.

    • Resolved – The vApp is created but does not yet have any VMs in it.

    • Creating – The system is in the process of creating the vApp.

    • Waiting for User Input – Indicates a vCD requirement for additional information about a VM.

  • Stopped/Running/Current Cost – provides an estimated calculation of the vApp's cost based on the amount of resources (e.g., CPU, memory, storage, replication, licensing) that the vApp's contents are configured to use.

  • Current Status – displays vApp status information, including:

    • vApp Diagram – Clicking objects in the vApp diagram provides pop-up summaries for vApp Networks and VMs, which in turn link to further detail screens.

      The Legend button provides a summary key to the images in the diagram. The diagram's VM icons include symbols indicating power state (running, stopped) of virtual machines (VMs) within the vApp.

      The View by Tag drop-down list allows you to filter the diagram according to selected tags assigned to the diagram objects. The diagram changes to indicate objects with the specified tag. To filter the diagram by multiple tag values, select additional tags. To eliminate a tag's filter effect on the diagram, click the tag's "X" symbol to remove it from the diagram section.

    • Task History – Displays a subset of system task history, relating to actions taken on the vApp's configuration.

      See How do I monitor my tasks? for more information.

    • Billing – Displays bar graphs depicting billing data for the vApp object over time. The graphs provide an additional display of projected billing for the current month, based on extrapolation from existing monthly charges. You can click the graph's bars to navigate to the applicable billing page for the selected bar.

      See Managing Your Billing for more information.
  •  

  • Children – vApp child object information, including:

    • NetworksvApp networks and linked vDC networks appear as rows in the "Networks" table. Click the network name link to navigate to its detail page to review or edit the network.

      The "Networks" section also allows you to create and delete vApp networks, and link or unlink a vDC network connection to the vApp.

      Creating a vApp Network
      See How do I create a vApp network? for details. vApp creation requires a network name, gateway, and selection of the connection parent network (a vDC network). The vApp network name cannot be blank and cannot be the same as another vApp network in the same vApp.

      Linking a vDC Network
      To link a vDC network to the vApp, click the Link vDC Network drop-down, and select the name of the desired vDC network. The selected vDC network appears in the vApp's "Networks" table.

      Deleting a vApp Network
      To delete a vApp network, click the Delete button in the desired network's row in the "Networks" table. A vApp network can be deleted only if it does not have any connected VMs.

      Unlinking a vDC Network To unlink a connected vDC network from the vApp, click the Unlink button in the desired network's row in the "Networks" table. A vDC network can be unlinked only if it does not have any connected VMs.

    • VMs – VMs within the vApp appear as rows in the "VMs" table. Click VM name link to navigate to its detail page to review or edit the VM.

      The "VMs" section also allows you to create or delete a VM in the vApp, and specify the boot order of the VMs in the vApp.

      Creating a VM in the vApp
      See Creating a New VM for details. VM creation requires you to specify the VM name, hostname, network connection, and storage policy. The VM's name cannot be blank, and cannot be identical to another VM in the vApp.

      Specifying VM Startup Order
      Use the VM table's "Startup Order" column to set the boot order of VMs in the vApp. Click the pencil icon in the "Startup Order" column in any VM's row in the "VMs" table and specify an integer (in the range 0 to 65535).

      Deleting a VM from the vApp
      Click the Delete button in the desired VM's row in the "VMs" table. Deleting a VM removes it from the vApp. A VM must be powered off in order to be deleted.

    • Snapshots – the "Snapshots" table displays the date and time, power state, and disk size of any existing saved snapshots of the VMs in the vApp.

      The "Snapshots" section also allows you create a snapshot of all VMs in the vApp, revert to an existing vApp snapshot, and delete vApp snapshots.

      Creating a Snapshot
      Click +Create Snapshot to create a snapshot of all VMs within the vApp. One snapshot may exist at any time, and a new snapshots overwrite older ones. Creating a snapshot allows you to specify whether it should Include current powered-on memory state and/or whether the snapshot should Quiesce guest file system.


      Notes: Snapshots are meant for short term use (24-72 hours) and should not be confused with a backup.

      Snapshots can degrade the performance of a virtual machine and possibly the ESXi Host over time.

      Snapshots are not recommended on virtual disks any larger than 2 TB.

      See How do I create snapshots of VMs? for more information on creating snapshots.
  •  

  • Configuration – vApp configuration information, including:

    • Sharing – provides users in your organization with read or write access to the vApp, its VMs, and its networks.

      Only the vApp owner or a system administrator can modify a vApp that is not shared. Click the "gear" icon to view the Edit vApp Sharing page and set a Default Access value from among the following:

      • Not Shared

      • Full Control

      • Read/Write

      • Read Only

      Use the radio button access control columns to apply exceptions to the default access granularly among listed members of your organization. Note that the sharing settings apply only to Standard Users, not to Administrators.

    • vApp Config – Indicates whether the vApp is configured for replication, and provides a link to configure replication for the vApp.

    • Object Properties – provides the following information about the vApp:

      • Description – A vApp’s description can be edited by clicking the "pencil" icon in the "Description" field.

      • Owner – By default, the user who created the vApp. The owner value can be changed by a user with an Administrator role. To change the vApp's owner, click the "Owner" field's "gear" icon and its associated Change Owner link. Select a new owner value from the table display of users, and click the "checkmark" icon to save your changes.

      • Date Created – the date on which the vApp was created.

      • vCloud – the installed instance of vCloud Director®, identified by the physical location of the data center.

      • vDataCenter – the vDataCenter (vDC) containing the vApp.

      • UUID – the vApp's Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) value.

Downloading Table Data

To download any displayed table data as a .csv file, click the "Download" icon above the table.

Changing the vApp Name

To change the vApp's name, click the "pencil" icon to the right of the vApp name at the top of the vApp detail page. The name cannot be blank and cannot be the same as another vApp in the same vCloud.


Adding Tags to a vApp

Tags are keywords that you can use to identify or logically group items. They are useful in finding items through the universal search or a table’s filter.

Click the Add Tag button at the top of the vApp detail page to add a tag to the vApp.

See What is a Tag? and How do I add or remove Tags? for more information.

Starting, Stopping, Suspending, and Resetting the vApp


 
Start – Clicking the Start button at the vApp detail page powers on its VMs and deploys its network gateways. If your vApp contains multiple VMs, clicking the Start button at the vApp detail page powers on all VMs within the vApp. A vApp must be stopped or partially running in order to be started.

Stop – Clicking the Stop button (or selecting Stop from the drop down menu) at the vApp detail page performs a shut down operation on all running VMs in the vApp. A vApp must be running or partially running in order to be stopped.

Suspend – Selecting Suspend from the Stop button drop down menu at the vApp detail page places all VMs in the vApp in a suspended state. The VM running states are maintained by the system.

Reset – Clicking the "refresh" button cycles the power of all of VMs in the vApp. A vApp must be running in order to be reset.

Creating a vApp Template

A vApp template is an image of a vApp which contains one or more VM images and may contain one or more vApp networks.

See How do I create a vApp template? for details on creating a vApp template.

Copying (Cloning) the vApp

The vApp detail page Copy button allows you to create a clone of the vApp and its VMs.

See How do I clone a vApp? for details on cloning a vApp.

Downloading the vApp

The Download button allows you to download the vApp from NCD using VMware's OVF Tool, or the vCloud Director user interface. To initiate a vApp download from the vApp detail page, click Download.

A vApp must be Stopped in order to be downloaded.

See Uploading and Downloading vApps, Templates, and Media for details on downloading a vApp from NCD.

Deleting the vApp

The Delete button at the top of the vApp detail page allows you to delete the vApp from your Navisite Cloud Director environment. Deleting a vApp removes it from the organization, along with its VMs and networking infrastructure.

Note: A vApp must be Stopped or Suspended in order to be deleted.

Click Delete at the top of the vApp detail page to delete the vApp, and click OK to confirm the deletion. The deleted vApp is removed from the vApps page list.

Viewing the vApp in vCloud Director

Click the View in vCloud button at the top of the vApp detail page to launch VMware vCloud Director® and use the interface to view the vApp. See What is View in vCloud? for more information.

Creating a new vApp
How do I clone a vApp?
What is a VM?

Related vCD Documents




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