Clone a Virtual Machine

Cloning a virtual machine creates a virtual machine that is a copy of the original. The new virtual machine is configured with the same virtual hardware, installed software, and other properties that were configured for the original virtual machine.

Note: When heavily loaded applications, such as load generators, are running in the guest operating system during a clone operation, the virtual machine quiesce operation can fail and VMware Tools might be denied CPU resources and time out. It is recommended that you quiesce the virtual machines running lower I/O disk operation.

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:

• Virtual machine .Provisioning.Clone virtual machine on the virtual machine you are cloning.
• Virtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on the datacenter or virtual machine folder.
• Virtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk on the datacenter or virtual machine folder.
• Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool.
• Datastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore or datastore folder.
• Network.Assign network on the network to which the virtual machine will be assigned.
• Virtual machine .Provisioning.Customize on the virtual machine or virtual machine folder if you are customizing the guest operating system.
• Virtual machine .Provisioning.Read customization specifications on the root vCenter Server if you are customizing the guest operating system.