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VM groups

A VM group is a named set of virtual machines below one cluster: a Cloud Director vApp, a Proxmox resource pool, a vCenter folder, or a group you make yourself. It carries a name, a kind, a description, tags and custom fields. It never gates access.

It exists because some platforms have no flat VM list at all. In Cloud Director every machine lives in a vApp, so without groups the structure an operator reads their own console by would be lost on import.

Where to find them

  • Virtualization → VM groups - every group, with filters for kind, cluster and site. A group has no site of its own; it shows its cluster's.
  • A group's page - Overview (kind, cluster, site, VM count, custom fields), Virtual machines, Journal and Change log.
  • A cluster's VM groups tab - that cluster's groups, with Add VM group pre-set to the cluster.
  • The Group column on the VM list, filterable like any other, and the Group field on a VM's form and Overview.
  • Global search finds groups by name; cluster: narrows by cluster.

Kinds

Kind Comes from
vApp Cloud Director sync
Resource pool Proxmox VE sync
Folder vCenter sync
Group made by hand

The kind is a label, so the word on screen matches the console you compare against. You can set it on a group you make yourself.

Rules

  • A VM joins only a group on its own cluster. The VM form offers the selected cluster's groups. Moving a VM to another cluster drops its old group; a group cannot move to another cluster while it has VMs.
  • Names are unique per cluster. The same name on two clusters is two groups - a vCenter folder that spans clusters becomes one group per cluster.
  • Deleting a group leaves its VMs alone. They stay, without a group.

Groups a sync writes

Synced groups follow the same rule as synced clusters: they are ordinary, editable objects, and the sync finds them again by cluster and name.

  • Description, tags and custom fields are yours to edit, and a sync never touches them.
  • Rename a synced group and the next pass makes a new one with the hypervisor's name, because that name is the key. VMs the sync created move to it in Automatic mode; VMs you adopted keep the renamed group. Rename the pool, folder or vApp at the source instead.
  • Delete a synced group and the next pass recreates it if the hypervisor still reports it.

Membership follows the hypervisor only for VMs the sync created, in Automatic mode - into another group or out of one. Anything else is blank-fill: a VM with no group gets the hypervisor's, and a VM you grouped by hand keeps your grouping. A group of kind Group is never cleared by a sync.

Each source has a Sync … as VM groups switch (on by default). Turning it off stops new groups and memberships; it removes nothing already written.

See also