Clone an existing Virtual Machine in VM Ware vSphere Client 5.5

http://donaldsupport.blogspot.com/2013/09/clone-or-copy-virtual-machine-in-vmware.html

Clone or Copy a virtual machine in VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESX/ESXi 4.x or ESXi 5.0

1

CONNECT TO THE VMWARE VSPHERE HYPERVISOR SERVER

Using the VMware vSphere Client, login and connect to the ESX/ESXi server, using the IP address or hostname of the ESX/ESXi server, using the root username and password credentials. If you have a VMware vSphere vCenter server, you could also specify IP address or hostname of the vCenter server which manages your ESX/ESXi servers.

VMware-vSphere-Client3.jpg

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• Using the VMware vSphere Client, login and connect to the VMware ESX/ESXi server

2 Select and browse the datastore

Once connected to the server, the VMware vSphere Client will display the following inventory of the VMware vSphere ESX/ESXi server.

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• Connected to VMware ESX/ESXi server

The datastore properties are shown on the right hand side

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• Datastore Properties

Select the datastore, if you've not rename the datastore, the datastore default name isdatastore1.

Right Click the datastore datastore1 and select Browse datastore. All VMware virtual machine files are stored in the datastore.

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• Browse Datastore

3. Select the correct virtual machine folder

The Datastore Browser will open and show the contents of the datastore. The virtual machines are stored in folders.

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• Datastore Browser - datastore contents

Double click the virtual machine folder you need to clone or copy.

4. Create a destination virtual machine folder for the virtual machine clone or copy

Select the root (/) of the datastore, and click the New Folder icon to create a new destination folder for the new virtual machine clon or copy..

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• Create folder

Enter a name for the folder name followed by OK.

 

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• Enter folder name

The folder will be created in the root of the datastore

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• Folder Created in root of the datastore

5. Select and Copy Virtual Machine files

Before you can CLONE/COPY the virtual machine files the Virtual Machine needs to be POWERED-OFF.

Double click the virtual machine folder you need to clone/copy.

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• VM Folder

Select ALL the files in the VM folder to be cloned/copied.

 

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• Select all the VM files

Once all the files have been selected, Right Click and Select Copy.

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• Right Click and Select Copy

Select and open the folder created in Step 4.

 

Folder-Created.jpg

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• Folder Created in root of the datastore

the folder will be empty

 

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• Empry Folder

Right click the empty folder space and Right Click and Select Paste

 

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• Right click the empty folder space and Right Click and Select Paste[

The Copy Progress bar will be displayed, indicating a time to completion.

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• The Copy Progress bar will be displayed

Contents of the new folder, with the cloned/copied virtual machine files.

 

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• Contents of the new folder, with copy or clone of the virtual machine.

6. Register the cloned/copied virtual machine with the Inventory

Select and Right Click the virtual machine VMX file.

 

Add-to-Inventory.jpg

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• Add to Inventory

Follow the Add to Inventory Wizard, make sure the name is different and unique, it must be different to the original virtual machine name. This is just a friendly name for the inventory, it does not change the name of the name of the virtual machine OS.

Enter a Inventory Name followed by Next

 

Add-to-Inventory-Wizard1.jpg

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• Add name

Select the host, that you want to add this virtual machine to, followed by Next

 

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• Add VM to host

Review the details and Click Finish to add the VM to the Host Machines Inventory. The Virtual Machine will be added to the inventory.

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• Review and Finish

You have successfully cloned or copied a virtual machine.

 

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• vSphere Client Inventory with Cloned, Copied Virtual Machine