Administration Guide › Managing Virtual Environments › VMware vSphere and vCenter Server › VMware vCenter Provisioning and Common Use Cases › Add a Virtual Machine (vCenter Server)

Add a Virtual Machine (vCenter Server)

You can use one of two methods to add a VM:

• Clone a predefined template
• Clone an existing VM and a customization specification. The customization specification defines the characteristics of the Guest OS.

VM provisioning supports Standard Switches and Distributed Virtual Switches. When provisioning a VM that is attached to a Distributed Virtual Switch, you can specify the appropriate discovered dvPort Group in the user interface. dvPort Groups define how a connection is made to the network through the Distributed Virtual Switch.

To add a VM

1. Right-click VMware vCenter Server in the Explore pane and select Provisioning, Provision VMware VM.

   VMware vCenter Provisioning dialog appears.

2. Select options from the drop-down lists to specify the settings.

   Note: The virtual machines listed for cloning are limited to virtual machines that are monitored by CA Server Automation. Access to VMs is restricted to ensure security. If you want to clone a system that is unavailable, discover that system as you would any other system to make it available in the drop-down list.

3. Enter your user name, password, and the host name to use. Otherwise the name indicated in the specification is used by default.

   Note: The user name and password for Windows and Linux must match those defined in the customization specification file.

4. Select one of the following options and click Next:
   • VC Virtual Machine to use an existing VM
   • VC Template to use a template to create a new VM
   • VC Specification to select a customization specification from the available list

   The Virtual Machine Memory page appears.

5. (Optional) Adjust the memory for the VM and click Next.

   Memory

   Populates the field with the memory value defined in the VM template or VM.

   Default: 4 MB minimum and 16 GB maximum

   Note: Configure these values in the caimgconf.cfg file.

   The Virtual Machine CPU page appears.

6. (Optional) Adjust the CPU for the VM and click Next.

   Virtual Processors

   Populates the field with the number of virtual processors defined in the VM template or VM.

   Default: 1 CPU minimum and 4 CPU maximum

   Note: Configure these values in the caimgconf.cfg file.

   The Disk page appears with the fields populated with the default values from the selected VM or template that you selected.

7. (Optional) Set the drive size and click Add Drive to add drives, configure which data store to associate the hard disk with, and which SCSI controller to use from the drop-down lists and click Next.

   Datastore

   Identifies the data store name of the VMware ESX host where the VM will be created.

   Drive size

   Lets you specify a drive size and add more hard disks to the VM.

   Limits: The minimum drive size is 1 MB, but cannot exceed the drive size for the data store you selected.

   SCSI controller

   Specifies which SCSI controller to use as the virtual adapter.

   The Network page appears and the table is populated with the default values from the selected template.

8. (Optional) Click inside the cells in the Network Management table to activate drop-down lists, change any settings desired.

   If your custom specification specifies the use of DHCP, you will only be able to edit the network connection cell in the table. Network connections now support both networks for standard and distributed virtual switches. You can distinguish the names of Standard Switches and Distributed Virtual Switches based on the following naming convention:

   • For Standard Switches, the name is the network name.
   • For Distributed Virtual Switches, the name is a concatenation of the dvPort group name followed by the Distributed Virtual Switch name enclosed in parentheses: dvPortGroupName (dvSwitchName)

   If your custom specification specifies the use of a static IP address, you will be able to edit all cells except the NIC cell. CA Server Automation does not support the custom specification network setting "Prompt User." Custom Specifications that use this setting will be filtered out and unavailable.

   Click Next.

9. Click Add Computer.

   A confirmation message appears at the top of the pane.

   Note: Imaging takes time, so you should expect a delay during operating system installation. For more efficient discovery, you can adjust the discovery retry time or the interval in the caimgconf.cfg file located at: install_path\CA\productname\conf.

10. Click Refresh to see the new VM in the left pane.

    Your data center has a new cloned VM. You can view the events of the imaging process in the dashboard and you can generate an imaging job report.

More information:

dpmutil vcserver Command--Configure VMware vCenter