6.0.1

Customize Virtual Machine Hardware
Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware. When you
create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device drop-down
menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM
disk.
For information about virtual disk configuration, including instructions for adding different types of disks,
see “Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine,” on page 117.
For help configuring other virtual machine hardware, see Chapter 6, “Configuring Virtual Machine
Hardware,” on page 89.
Procedure
1 (Optional) To add a new virtual hardware device, select the device from the New device drop-down
menu and click Add.
2 (Optional) Expand any device to view and configure the device settings.
3 To remove a device, move your cursor over the device and click the Remove icon.
This icon appears only for virtual hardware that you can safely remove.
4 Click Next.
Finish Virtual Machine Creation
Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.
Procedure
1 Review the virtual machine settings and make changes by clicking Back to go back to the relevant page.
2 Click Finish.
The virtual machine appears in the vSphere Web Client inventory.
Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template in the vSphere Web Client
After you create a virtual machine, you can clone it to a template. Templates are master copies of virtual
machines that let you create ready-for-use virtual machines. You can make changes to the template, such as
installing additional software in the guest operating system, while preserving the original virtual machine.
You cannot modify templates after you create them. To alter an existing template, you must convert it to a
virtual machine, make the required changes, and convert the virtual machine back to a template. To
preserve the original state of a template, clone the template to a template.
Prerequisites
If a load generator is running in the virtual machine, stop it before you perform the clone operation.
Verify that you have the following privileges:
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Virtual machine.Provisioning.Create template from virtual machine on the source virtual machine.
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Virtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on virtual machine folder where the template is
created.
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Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool.
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Datastore.Allocate space on all datastores where the template is created.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
38 VMware, Inc.