Create a VM From Template With vApp Properties

[ajcruz]

I have created a script that successfully creates a VM from template with this:

New-VM -Template $template -Name $newvmName -VMHost $esx -Datastore $ds -DiskStorageFormat Thin -Location $folder

but the vApp configuration is not copied over to the new VM. How do I include the vApp configuration and how would I modify the vApp property values on the new VM?

[LucD]

The vApp configuration is not included in any of the VM in that vApp.
You can clone a vApp configuration to a new vApp, but with a method, not a cmdlet.
See for example Solved: Re: Clone Vapp Boot Options - VMware Technology Network VMTN

[ajcruz]

Thanks for the reply. It's a little confusing for a non-vmware guy, but I'm not working with an actual vApp, rather I'm trying to create a single VM from a template that has vApp properties.

If I right-click on a VM template in the GUI and create a new VM from the template, all the vApp properties are copied over to the new VM. Trying to figure out how to replicate that in PowerCLI.

[LucD · Accepted solution]

There are no PowerCLI cmdlets to do that.
But William wrote some functions based on the API methods that allow you to do that.
See Updating OVF properties for a VM using vSphere API and PowerCLI

[ajcruz]

Thanks. I'm doing this as part of a Packer post-processor and since I already had the spec created for the original VM I just re-used the spec and applied it to the new VM, then used the Set-VMOvfProperty function from the PowerValidatedSolutions module mentioned by William Lam in the link you provided.