Creating a Clone of a Virtual Machine

You can create a new virtual machine by copying (cloning) an existing virtual machine. If you want to clone a virtual machine without stopping it, you can clone it from a snapshot.

• Only data is cloned, and a new virtual machine is created as a container. Therefore, the following are different from the original virtual machine:
  • Virtual machine UUID
  • MAC Address
• When creating a clone, the IP address of the original virtual machine may be shared. Before starting the clone, make sure that the NIC is set to Disconnected.
• Cloning a snapshot of a running virtual machine may or may not work correctly: if there are disk writes occurring during the snapshot creation, the snapshot or resulting clone may not contain the data being written.

Difference Between Full Copy and Fast Clone

There are two ways to clone a virtual machine: “Full copy” and “Fast Clone”.

Full copy: The virtual machine disk will be copied completely. This
takes time to create, but it is recommended.

This method of deploying a clone is a copy of the parent virtual machine that was the source of the clone. It creates a completely new disk image.

Fast Clone: ​​Writes only changed blocks to disk.
It is created quickly from a snapshot, but it is generally not recommended to use it.

Fast Clone creates linked VHD clone disks, so virtual machines created from templates have their disks linked to the template’s disks, making them very fast to create. However, because Fast Clone creates a long link tree, excessive use of it can degrade performance or limit individual operations between clones. Therefore, we recommend using Full copy as a general rule.

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Clone a Virtual Machine From a Stopped State

1. Stop the target virtual machine

Open the virtual machine you want to clone and power it off.

Please see here for instructions on how to stop a virtual machine .

Step 2: Create a clone

Click Copy.

A modal window titled “Copy VM” will appear, so enter the following information and click “OK”.

Name	Enter the name of the virtual machine you want to create.
Full copy	Select.
Select SR	Select the destination storage.
Compression	Select Disabled.
Fast clone	Make sure it is not selected.

Once creation is complete, no message will be displayed.

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3. Check the created clone

The created clone can be viewed in the list of virtual machines.

You can narrow down the virtual machines by removing “power_state:running” from “Filters” and entering the name of the cloned virtual machine, then find the target clone from the list of virtual machines and click it.

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4. Start the original virtual machine

Open the virtual machine you want to clone and power it on.

Please see here for how to start a virtual machine .

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Create a Clone From a Snapshot of a Running Virtual Machine

1. Open the target snapshot

Open the virtual machine to be cloned and open the “Snapshots” tab. To create a new snapshot, select “New snapshot with memory” or “New snapshot.”

Snapshots can also be created on a running virtual machine. Learn how to create a snapshot here .

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Step 2: Create a clone

Click “Create a VM from this snapshot” in the row of the relevant snapshot.

A modal window titled “Copy VM” will appear, so enter the following information and click “OK”.

Name	Enter the name of the virtual machine you want to create.
Full copy	Select.
Select SR	Select the destination storage.
Compression	Select Disabled.
Fast clone	Make sure it is not selected.

Once creation is complete, no message will be displayed.

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3. Check the created clone

The created clone can be viewed in the list of virtual machines.

You can narrow down the virtual machines by removing “power_state:running” from “Filters” and entering the name of the cloned virtual machine, then find the target clone from the list of virtual machines and click it.