6.7

Table Of Contents
Prerequisites
If a load generator is running in the virtual machine, stop it before you perform the clone operation.
You must have the following privileges to clone a virtual machine:
n
Virtual machine .Provisioning.Clone virtual machine on the virtual machine you are cloning.
n
Virtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on the datacenter or virtual machine folder.
n
Virtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk on the datacenter or virtual machine folder.
n
Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource
pool.
n
Datastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore or datastore folder.
n
Network.Assign network on the network to which the virtual machine will be assigned.
n
Virtual machine .Provisioning.Customize on the virtual machine or virtual machine folder if you are
customizing the guest operating system.
n
Virtual machine .Provisioning.Read customization specifications on the root vCenter Server if
you are customizing the guest operating system.
Procedure
1 Start the Clone Existing Virtual Machine wizard.
Option Description
Open the Clone Existing Virtual
Machine wizard from any object in the
inventory
a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual
machine, such as a data center, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host, and
select New Virtual Machine.
b On the Select a creation type page, select Clone an existing virtual
machine and click Next.
c On the Select a virtual machine page, select the virtual machine that you
want to clone.
Open the Clone Existing Virtual
Machine wizard from a virtual machine
Right-click a virtual machine and select Clone > Clone to Virtual Machine.
2 On the Select a name and folder page, enter a unique name for the new virtual machine and select a
deployment location.
The template name determines the name of the files and folder on the disk. For example, if you name
the template win8tmp, the template files are named win8tmp.vmdk, win8tmp.nvram, and so on. If you
change the template name, the names of the files on the datastore do not change.
Folders provide a way to store virtual machines and templates for different groups in an organization
and you can set permissions on them. If you prefer a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines
and templates in a datacenter and organize them in a different way.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
VMware, Inc. 34