Clone an Image Profile

Use the vSphere Client to clone image profiles.

Prerequisites

You can use the vSphere Client to clone image profiles. You can clone an image profile when you want to make small changes to the VIB list in 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.

• Verify that the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is enabled and running. See Configure the vSphere ESXi Image Builder.
• Add or import a software depot to the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory. See Add a Software Depot and Import a Software Depot.
• Verify that there is at least one custom depot in the vSphere ESXi Image Builder inventory.

Procedure

1. Navigate to Home > Auto Deploy.
   By default, only the administrator role has privileges to use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service.
2. On the Software Depots tab, use the drop-down menu to select the software depot that contains the image profile that you want to work with.
3. From the list of image profiles in the depot, select the image profile that you want to clone and click Clone.
4. Enter an image profile name, vendor, and description.
   You must enter a unique image profile name.
5. From the Software depot drop-down menu, select in which custom depot to add the new image profile.
6. Click Next.
   The Select software packages page appears.
7. From the drop-down menu, select an acceptance level for the image profile.
   The acceptance level of the VIBs you add to the base image must be at least as high as the level of the base image. If you add a VIB with a lower acceptance level to the image profile, you must lower the image profile acceptance level. For more information, see Working with Acceptance Levels.
8. Select the VIBs that you want to add to the image profile and deselect the ones that you want to remove, and click Next.
   Note: The image profile must contain a bootable ESXi image to be valid.
   vSphere ESXi Image Builder verifies that the change does not invalidate the profile. Some VIBs depend on other VIBs and become invalid if you include them in an image profile separately. When you add or remove a VIB, vSphere ESXi Image Builder checks whether the package dependencies are met.
9. On the Ready to complete page, review the summary information for the new image profile and click Finish.

What to do next

• You can associate an image profile with a new vSphere Auto Deploy rule to provision ESXi hosts. See Create a Deploy Rule or Clone a Deploy Rule.
• You can associate an image profile with an ESXi host. See Add a Host to the vSphere Auto Deploy Inventory.
• Edit the Image Profile Association of a Host.

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 Configure vSphere ESXi Image Builder.
• 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.