2.5

Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 47
4
Machinetemplatesarevirtualmachineimagesusedasbuildingblocksfor
configurations.Youcanbuildacollectionoftemplatescontainingavarietyofoperating
systems,applicationservers,databases,directoryservers,andotherinfrastructures
usedindevelopmentandtesting.
Thischaptercoversthesetopics:
“A b o u t Templatesonpage 47
“A c c e s s i n g theTemplatesPageonpage 48
“ReviewingTemplateOperations”onpage 50
About Templates
Atemplateisavirtualmachineimageloadedwithanoperatingsystem,applications
anddata.Youcanthinkofatemplateasarawvirtualmachine.
Onceyou“publish”atemplate,youcanlaythefoundationformultimachine
configurationswithoutreinstallingsoftwareorperformingsetuptasksagain.Theuse
oftemplates
ensuresthatvirtualmachinesareconsistentlyconfiguredwithoperating
systems,versions,systempacks,andmoreacrossanentireorganization.
VMwarerecommendsinstallingLMToolsontemplates.LMToolsrequiresVMware
ToolsandisafeaturethatallowsLab Managertoconfigurenetworksettings(IP
address,MACaddress,SecurityIdentifier,andmore)for
virtualmachines.Thesetools
saveyouthetroubleofmanuallyconfiguringthesettings.See“InstallingLMTools”on
page 64formoreinformation.
Working with Machine
Templates
4