# Existing Instances

VM Essentials provides several features regarding pulling in existing virtual machines and servers in an environment. Most cloud options contain a checkbox titled ‘Inventory Existing Instances’. When this option is selected, all VMs found within the specified scope of the cloud integration will be scanned periodically and Virtual Machines will be synced into VM Essentials. Users may also choose to onboard only virtual machines that are running within specific Resource Pools. Once the vCenter Cloud is integrated, navigate to the detail page for the specific Cloud (select it from the list at Infrastructure > Clouds). From the Resources tab, locate the Pools section. Click ACTIONS > Editnext to a selected Resource Pool. If INVENTORY is checked, VM Essentials will automatically onboard virtual machines from that Resource Pool.

By default these virtual machines are considered ‘unmanaged’ and do not appear in the Provisioning > Instances area but rather Infrastructure  >  Compute  >  Virtual Machines. However, a few features are provided with regards to unmanaged instances. They can be assigned to various accounts if using a multitenant master account, however it may be best suited to instead assign the ‘Resource Pool’ to an account and optionally move all servers with regards to that pool (more on this later).

A server can also be made into a managed server. During this process remote access is requested and an agent install is performed on the guest operating system. This allows for guest operations regarding log acquisition and stats. If the agent install fails, a server will still be marked as managed and an Instance will be created in Provisioning, however certain features will not function. This includes stats collection and logs.

NOTE

All Cloud data is resynchronized on a 5 minute interval. This includes Datastores, Resource Pools, Networks, Blueprints, and Virtual Machines.
