Often, when new virtual servers are deployed, there is a set of tasks that are the same for all of them. These tasks are usually OS installation, OS updates, VMware tools installation, and so on.
With vCenter, you can perform these tasks once and create a template. With this template, you can deploy as many servers as you need and only perform tasks that are different on each of them.
So templates make deployment of new virtual machines faster. There are also less chances for a mistake to happen or a step to be missed.
An example of a workflow with and without templates is shown in the following picture:
To create a template:
Create a new VM and perform configuration tasks that have to be repeated for each VM such as OS installation, OS updates, VMware tools installation, and so on.
Shut down the VM and right-click on it.
Go to Template.
Click on Convert to Template as shown in the following screenshot:
