Administration Guide › Managing Virtual Environments › VMware vSphere and vCenter Server › VMware vCenter Provisioning and Common Use Cases › Convert a Virtual Machine to a Template

Convert a Virtual Machine to a Template

You can convert a powered off virtual machine to a template to use the virtual machine's configuration as a base for other virtual machines.

To convert a virtual machine to a template

1. Open the Explore pane.

   Available groups, services, and systems appear.

2. Find and right-click a virtual machine on the Explore pane and select Management, Convert to Template.

   A confirmation dialog appears.

3. Click OK.

   A message appears confirming the request submission.

4. Click the Summary tab for the virtual machine.

   Verify that an event appears to confirm the operation. After the operation completes, the virtual machine appears as a template in the Explore pane when you refresh the interface.