Converting a Guest into a Template

Templates are created from regular Guests, executing on them a "convert" operation.

A template is special kind of Guest. After converting a Guest into a Template, the administrator will be able to generate new clone Guests based on the template. With flexVDI, clone creation is instant. This operation is the base of Volatile Desktops. A clone is a machine that begins with the disk of the base template, without duplicating the content of such disk, with the consequent disk space savings.

The task that can be executed on a template are:

• Clone
• Copy
• Convert (into a Guest).

Using Templates provide the following benefits when you manage virtual machines:

• Templates save time and prevent errors when configuring settings while creating virtual machines
• They can be used as long term security copies of the virtual machines
• They ensure that deployed virtual machines are correctly created and installed and that they are identical, achieving consistency among user virtual machines.
• They ensure that virtual machines are correctly created and installed. For example they can be used by big companies to the achieve consistency among virtual machines
• A template can not be modified. In order to do it, it must be converted back into a Guest

In order to create a Template, open the menu from the Guest, and select "Convert".

The Guest icon will go from  to 

This means that the Guest has just been converted into a Template.