Cloning a VM creates a VM with the same hardware configuration, OS, applications, and data as the original. The clone has a new vNIC MAC address and UUID.
When you specify a storage pool other than the one of the source VM for storing the image file of the clone, make sure the remaining size of the storage pool of the source VM is larger than the disk size of the clone.
Before cloning a VM that uses an SUSE openSUSE or Ubuntu Linux operating system, clear its NIC configuration file. If you do not clear the file, network parameter modifications do not take effect on the new VM.
Cloning an offline VM does not clone the GPU/vGPU devices mounted on the VM.
On the top navigation bar, click Resources.
From the left navigation pane, select Compute > Host Pool Name > Host Name > VM Name or Compute > Host Pool Name > Cluster Name > Host Name > VM Name.
Click Clone.
Follow the configuration wizard to finish the clone operation.
Configure basic settings:
Source VM: Alias of the source VM to be used as the cloning source.
Alias: Enter the alias of the clone VM. The default alias uses the source VM alias _clone format.
Clone Mode: Select the VM cloning mode.
Normal.
If you clone a shutdown VM whose disk type is file, the clone VM and the source VM have identical disk data. If the source VM uses a level-3 image, the clone VM and the source VM share the basic disk image.
If you clone a shutdown VM whose disk type is RBD block, the disks of the clone VM are combined into a level-1 image. The clone VM does not share the disk image with the source VM. In this scenario, normal clone has the same effect as full clone.
If you clone a running VM, the disks of the clone VM are combined into a level-1 image. The clone VM does not share the disk image with the source VM. In this scenario, normal clone has the same effect as full clone.
Fast—This method creates a VM based on incremental files. The clone VM shares the base image with the source VM and does not have the incremental data of the source VM. The clone VM uses level-3 images. This method increases the VM creation speed and saves storage space on servers. Only VMs that use thin-provisioned disks supports fast clone.
Complete—The clone VM and the source VM have identical disk data. The clone VM uses a level-1 image and does not share a disk image with the source VM. If multiple VMs are created by using this method, the storage space required for clone VMs is the size of the source VM multiplied by the number of the clone VMs.
Clone Destination: Select the clone destination.
Intra-Host—The source VM and the clone are on the same host.
Inter-Host—The source VM and the clone are on different hosts.
Start Now: Set whether to start the clone VM immediately after cloning is finished.
Configure storage settings:
Target Storage File: Specify a target storage file for the clone VM.
Target Storage Pool: Specify a target storage pool for the clone VM.
Fast or normal clone—If the VM to clone uses a file as the disk, you can select a target storage pool of the local directory, shared file system, or NFS file system type. If the VM to clone uses an RBD as the disk, you can select only RBD storage pools in the same distributed storage system.
Full clone—You can select any storage pool as the target storage pool.
Specify Format: Set the disk format for the clone VM. You can configure this parameter for normal clone of a source VM that does not use multi-level images or full clone. This parameter takes effect only if you select a target storage pool of the local directory, shared file system, or NFS file system type.
Same Format—The disk format of the clone VM is the same as that of the source VM.
Intelligent—The disk format is qcow2.
High-Speed—The disk format is raw. This format has high I/O efficiency.
Configure network settings:
Network Parameters: Set the network parameters for the clone VM.
Default—Does not configure network parameters for the clone VM.
DHCP—Uses DHCP to configure network parameters for the clone VM.
Manual—Manually configures the following network parameters for the clone VM:
IPv4 Address: Enter an IP address for the clone VM.
Subnet Mask: Enter a subnet mask for the clone VM.
Default Gateway: Enter a default gateway address for the clone VM.
Primary DNS: Enter the IP address of the primary DNS server.
Secondary DNS: Enter the IP address of the backup DNS server.