Clone an Image Profile with PowerCLI Cmdlets

Cloning a published profile is the easiest way to create a custom image profile. Cloning a profile is especially useful if you want to remove a few VIBs from a profile, or if you want to use hosts from different vendors and want to use the same basic profile, but want to add vendor-specific VIBs. VMware partners or large installations might consider creating a new profile.

Prerequisites

• Install the PowerCLI and all prerequisite software. See vSphere ESXi Image Builder Installation and Usage.
• Verify that you have access to the software depot that contains the image profile you want to clone.

Procedure

1. In a PowerCLI session, run the Add-EsxSoftwareDepot cmdlet for each depot you want to work with.

   Option	Action
   Remote depot	Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl <depot_url>.
   ZIP file	Download the ZIP file to a local file system. Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\<file_path>\<offline-bundle>.zip

   The cmdlet returns one or more SoftwareDepot objects.
2. (Optional) Run the Get-EsxImageProfile cmdlet to find the name of the profile that you want to clone.
   You can use filtering options with Get-EsxImageProfile.
3. Run the New-EsxImageProfile cmdlet to create the new profile and use the -CloneProfile parameter to specify the profile you want to clone.

   New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile My_Profile -Name "Test Profile 42"

   This example clones the profile named My_Profile and assigns it the name Test Profile 42. You must specify a unique combination of name and vendor for the cloned profile.

What to do next

See Examine Depot Contents for some examples of filtering.

Customize the image profile by adding or removing VIBs. See Add VIBs to an Image Profile with PowerCLI Cmdlets.