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For a list of all objectives see the VCP5 page.

Objective 4.2 – Create and Deploy vApps

See also this similar post: Objective 4.2 – Create and Deploy vApps.

Identify vApp settings (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 179 and 183). Common settings are:

  • vApp Resources for CPU and memory capacity (Share, Reservation, Reservation type, Limit).
  • vApp Startup and Shutdown Options for the order of the VMs inside the vApp.
  • vApp Properties (in the Advanced Property Configuration)
  • IP Allocation Policy (see later)

Create/Clone/Export a vApp (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 178 and 193) and Build & Manage a vApp. Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Note that the distribution format for vApp is OVF, and the vApp metadata resides in the vCenter Server’s database, so a vApp can be distributed across multiple ESXi hosts. This information can be lost if the vCenter Server database is cleared or if a standalone ESXi host that contains a vApp is removed from vCenter Server. You should back up vApps to an OVF package to avoid losing any metadata.

Add objects to an existing vApp (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 181). Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Note that a vApp can include: VMs, Resource Pools and other vApps.

Edit vApp settings (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 183) and Edit vApp settings. Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Configure IP pools (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 191). Note that the IP allocation options are:

  • Fixed IP: addresses are manually configured. No automatic allocation is performed. No IP pool is needed.
  • Transient IP: addresses are automatically allocated using IP pools from a specified range when the vApp is powered on. The IP addresses are released when the appliance is powered off.
  • DHCP: a DHCP server is used to allocate the IP addresses. The addresses assigned by the DHCP server are visible in the OVF environments of virtual machines started in the vApp.

Suspend/Resume a vApp (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 194 and 195). Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Determine when a tiered application should be deployed as a vApp (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 177) and vApps in vSphere 4, and why they’re very, very useful. Note that vApps requires both a vCenter Server and a DRS license.

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