User`s guide

VMware, Inc. 129
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations
Cloning Configurations
Stage Managerallowsyoutocreatelinkedclonesandfullclonesofanundeployed
configuration.
Alinkedcloneoperationgeneratesa“quick”copybycreatingadeltadiskinsteadof
copyinganentirevirtualharddisk.Thisoperationaddressesvirtualmachine
proliferationbyusing“referentialprovisioning,”aprocessthatinvolvesstoringnew
changesbutreferringbacktoachainofdeltadisks.Foreachclone,Stage Manager
freezestheoriginaldeltadiskandcreatesanewone.
Afullcloneoperationcopiesallofthedeltadisksandthebasediskandconsolidates
themintoanewbasedisk.Theoriginalbasediskremains
unchanged.
Typically,youdonotcreatefullclonesexceptundertheseconditions:
 Youneedtodismantlethestorageandmovetheconfigurationtoadifferentserver.
 Youwanttomaximizeperformanceforvirtualmachines(forexample,forcertain
production‐levelvirtualmachines).
Afull‐cloneoperationtakesalongertimethanalinked‐cloneoperation.
Inafencedconfiguration,virtualmachinesretainthesameIPaddresswithinthefence.
Stage ManagerassignsnewexternalIPaddressesforcommunicationoutside
thefence.
Eachtimeyoudeployafencedconfiguration,Stage ManagerassignsnewexternalIP
addressesfromtheStage ManagerIPaddresspool.Stage ManagerreturnstheIP
addressestothepoolwhenthefencedconfigurationisundeployed.Stage Manager
doesnotreturntheIPaddressofalinkedclonetotheIPpool
untilthevirtualmachine
andallitscopiesaredeleted.
Whenyoucreateaeitheralinkedorfullclone,Stage Managerassignsthesame
networkparameterstotheclonedvirtualmachines.Ifyoudeploytheoriginaland
clonedconfigurationsatthesametime,duplicateIPaddresserrorsoccurunlessoneof
theconfigurationsisdeployedinfencedmode.Forinformationaboutfencing,see
Appendix C,“NetworkFencing,”onpage 181.Forinformationaboutthealternativeto
fencingforthissituation,see“ChangingIPAddresses”onpage 161.
SomeStage Manageroperationsindirectlyinvolvecloning.Forexample,archivinga
configurationinvolvesacloningprocess.Formoreexamples,
see“EnablingResources”
onpage 77.
Thisoperationinvolvesspecifyingastoragelease.See“ReviewingtheResource
CleanupTab”onpage 103.