How to Import VMware Templates into VMM

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

You can use the following procedure to import a VMware template to the Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) library.

When you import a VMware template to the VMM library, VMM no longer copies the .vmdk file to the library. Instead, VMM copies only the metadata that is associated with the template. Therefore, the VMware template is now dependent on the server that is running VMware vCenter Server. For more information about the new template behavior in VMM, see the “Key Differences in VMware ESX Management from VMM 2008 R2” section of the topic Managing VMware ESX Hosts in VMM Overview.

For you to complete this procedure, a VMware template must exist. Make sure that the server that is running vCenter Server, and that contains the template, is under VMM management. For more information, see How to Add a VMware vCenter Server to VMM.

Note

You cannot install VMware Tools through VMM. Therefore, we recommend that you install the tools for Windows-based guest operating systems on the virtual machine before you use vCenter Server to create the template.

To import a template from vCenter Server

  1. Open the Library workspace.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Import group, click Import VMware Template.

  3. In the Import VMware Templates dialog box, select the check box next to each VMware template that you want to import, and then click OK.

  4. To verify that the template was added, in the Library pane, expand Templates, and then click VM Templates.

    In the Templates pane, verify that the template appears.