Guest VM naming

This section describes the guest VM naming pattern that you specify on the Properties page of the template creation wizard.

Each time a new guest VM is created, a name for it is generated automatically based on the pattern that you specify in the Guest VM name field. The complete name format is as follows:

<prefix>%ID:N:S%<ending>

where:

• <prefix> is an alphanumeric string that MUST begin with a letter (not a digit).
• %ID:N:S% is a numeric pattern used to automatically generate a unique VM ID. See the Numeric pattern subsection below.
• <ending> is a free-form alphanumeric string.

Numeric pattern

The numeric pattern in the VM name has the following format:

%ID:N:S%

The elements in the pattern above are:

• ID — Must be included as is.
• N — The number of digits to use, including leading zeros. Use "0" if you don't want to insert leading zeros.
• S — The starting number. This element is optional. If you don't include it, the number will start with 1.

Examples:

• %ID:3% — This pattern will generate 3 digit numbers with leading zeros, such as "001", "002", "003"...."998", "999".
• %ID:3:200% — This example will generate 3 digit numbers starting from 200, such as "200", "201", "202"..."998", "999".
• %ID:0% — This pattern will generate numbers with no leading zeros. It will start at 1 and will (theoretically) go up until the length limit is reached, which is 15 characters for the entire name.
• VDI-R1-%ID:3:100% — This is a complete name with an alphanumeric prefix and a numeric pattern. The resulting names will look like the following: "VDI-R1-100", "VDI-R1-101", etc.

When crating a name pattern, follow the rules listed below. If any of these rules are not observed, you will see an error message and will have to correct it:

• The name must start with a letter. A digit is not allowed as the first character.
• The alphanumeric part of a name can contain letters, digits, and a hyphen. No other characters are allowed.
• The total length of the name must not exceed 15 characters.
• The name can include just one numerical pattern (%ID:N:S%), which must be placed at the end or in the middle of the name.

Note that lost IDs are reused. This means that if a guest VM is deleted, its number will be reused to name the next guest VM.