Using Full Clones

A full clone is a complete and independent copy of a virtual machine. A full clone shares nothing with the parent virtual machine after the cloning operation. Ongoing operation of a full clone is separate from the parent virtual machine. You can create full clones only with Fusion Pro.

Because a full clone does not share virtual disks with the parent virtual machine, full clones generally perform better than linked clones. Full clones take longer to create than linked clones. Creating a full clone can take several minutes if the files involved are large.

Because a full clone duplicates only the state of the virtual machine at the instant of the cloning operation, it does not have access to snapshots of the parent virtual machine.

You can delete a full clone without affecting the parent virtual machine.