You can use the following actions for operating and managing virtual machines that are managed by System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007:

Operate Virtual Machines

Action Description

Start

Starts a virtual machine that is stopped, paused, or in a saved state.

Stop

Stops a virtual machine and does not save any state information. This action has the same effect on the virtual machine as does pulling the plug on a physical computer.

Pause

Suspends execution of a virtual machine and keeps all virtual machine state in memory.

Save state

Suspends execution of a virtual machine and saves the current virtual machine state to disk to release memory and CPU resources for other virtual machines. When the virtual machine is restored from the saved state, it returns to the condition that it was in when its state was saved.

Discard saved state

Discards the state that was saved for a virtual machine that is in a saved state and turns off the virtual machine.

Shut down

Shuts down the guest operating system on the virtual machine.

Connect to virtual machine

Connects to a virtual machine by using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). VMM attempts to connect to a running virtual machine that you select in the results pane and adds a thumbnail of the connection—the desktop of the virtual machine—to the virtual machine details. To open a larger connection window so you can log on to the virtual machine, you can either double-click the thumbnail or click Connect to virtual machine in the Actions pane.

Create Deploy, Migrate, and Store Virtual Machines

Action Description

New virtual machine

Creates a new virtual machine from an existing virtual machine managed by VMM, an existing virtual hard disk, a blank virtual hard disk, or a virtual machine template. For more information, see Creating Virtual Machines.

Clone

Clones a virtual machine from an existing virtual machine. The new virtual machine has the same identity as the source virtual machine. For more information, see How to Clone a Virtual Machine.

Deploy

Deploys a virtual machine on a host. (Available in Library view, for stored virtual machines.) For more information, see How to Deploy a Virtual Machine.

Migrate

Moves a virtual machine from one host to another. For more information, see How to Migrate a Virtual Machine.

Migrate Storage

Moves the virtual machine file to a different location on the same host. For more information, see How to Migrate a Virtual Machine.

Store in library

Stores a virtual machine in the Virtual Machine Manager library. The virtual machine's files are moved to the specified library share. The virtual machine is removed from displays for the host, and is displayed on the library share in Library view of the VMM Administrator Console. For more information, see How to Store a Virtual Machine in the Library.

Delete

Removes a virtual machine from VMM and delete all files for the virtual machine. For more information see How to Remove a Virtual Machine.

Important
Unlike the Virtual Server Remove host action, the VMM Delete action deletes all configuration files and virtual hard disks for the virtual machine. If you want to keep the files but not have the virtual machine appear in host displays, store the virtual machine in the library instead of removing it. For more information, see How to Store a Virtual Machine in the Library.

Manage Configurations, Disks, and Checkpoints

Action Description

Repair

Repairs a failed virtual machine by retrying the action that caused the failure, restoring the virtual machine to its state before the action caused it to fail, or refreshing the data for the virtual machine in VMM after mitigating the issue outside VMM. For more information, see How to Repair a Virtual Machine.

Note
   This is the default action for a failed virtual machine. You can double-click a failed virtual machine to open the dialog box.

Disable undo disks

Disables undo disks saved in Virtual Server, and merge or discard the changes, so that VMM can manage the virtual machine. For more information, see How to Disable Undo Disks for a Virtual Machine.

New checkpoint

Creates a checkpoint that enables you to restore a virtual machine to its current state. This action saves the state of each virtual hard disk that is attached to a virtual machine and all of the hard disk's contents, including application data files, to create a temporary backup of the virtual machine. For more information, see How to Create a Checkpoint.

Manage checkpoints

Opens the Checkpoints dialog box in order to create, edit, and merge checkpoints or to restore a virtual machine to a checkpoint. For more information, see How to Manage Checkpoints.

Install Virtual Guest Services

Installs Virtual Guest Services such as Integration Components (Hyper-V) or Virtual Machine Additions (Virtual Server) on the virtual machine.

Disable

Disables a virtual machine that is stored in the library to temporarily prevent use of the virtual machine. A disabled virtual machine remains in the library but cannot be deployed or repaired. (Library view only) For more information, see How to Temporarily Disable Library Resources.

Properties

Modifies the properties of a virtual machine. For more information, see How to Modify General Properties of a Virtual Machine.

Note
This is the default action for a virtual machine that is in a healthy state. You can double-click a healthy virtual machine in the results pane to open the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box.

See Also


For the most up-to-date Help information, go to the Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Help Online. To find additional Virtual Machine Manager 2008 documentation, go to the Virtual Machine Manager 2008 TechCenter Library.