Back to Basics - Part 5 vApp

In our couple of blog post related to Back to Basics Series we discussed about Virtual Machine Files (Part1) Standard Switches (Part2) vCenter Server (Part 3) Templates (Part4) and we also discussed about the various tasks related to building Home Lab Part1, Part 2, Part 3,Part 4 and Part 5.

In this blog will discuss about one of the vSphere Feature vApp! No we are not talking about Virtual Appliance, but one of the features used in vSphere which act as a container for your Virtual Machine.


vApp

• You can use VMware vSphere as a platform for running applications, in addition to using it as a platform for running virtual machines.
• The applications can be packaged to run directly on top of VMware vSphere. 
• The format of how the applications are packaged and managed is called VMware vApp.
• A vApp is a container, like a resource pool and can contain one or more virtual machines. 
• The vApp metadata resides in the vCenter Server's database, so a vApp can be distributed across multiple ESX/ESXi hosts. 
• This information can be lost if the vCenter Server database is cleared or if a standalone ESX/ESXi host that contains a vApp is removed from vCenter Server. 
• Distribution format can be Open Virtualization Format (OVF) and Open Virtualization Appliance (OVA).
• VM's Residing inside the vApp can be prioritised for Power On and Power OFF operations.