7.11. Creating a Virtual Machine Based on a Template

Create a virtual machine from a template to enable the virtual machines to be pre-configured with an operating system, network interfaces, applications and other resources.

Note

Virtual machines created from a template depend on that template. So you cannot remove a template from the Manager if a virtual machine was created from that template. However, you can clone a virtual machine from a template to remove the dependency on that template.

Note

If the BIOS type of the virtual machine differs from the BIOS type of the template, the Manager might change devices in the virtual machine, possibly preventing the operating system from booting. For example, if the template uses IDE disks and the i440fx chipset, changing the BIOS type to the Q35 chipset automatically changes the IDE disks to SATA disks. So configure the chipset and BIOS type to match the chipset and BIOS type of the template.

Creating a Virtual Machine Based on a Template

  1. Click Compute → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click New.
  3. Select the Cluster on which the virtual machine will run.
  4. Select a template from the Template list.
  5. Enter a Name, Description, and any Comments, and accept the default values inherited from the template in the rest of the fields. You can change them if needed.
  6. Click the Resource Allocation tab.
  7. Select the Thin or Clone radio button in the Storage Allocation area. If you select Thin, the disk format is QCOW2. If you select Clone, select either QCOW2 or Raw for disk format.
  8. Use the Target drop-down list to select the storage domain on which the virtual machine’s virtual disk will be stored.
  9. Click OK.

The virtual machine is displayed in the Virtual Machines tab.

Additional Resources