Deep Intro to VMware, Part 4: Cloning

In this 4th part of the series, Deep Intro to VMware, I will show and explain one of the benefits of VMware Virtual Infrastructure client that is connected to a Vmware VCenter server.

For this functionality I created a Windows XP image and I want several full copies of this image. To do this we have the ability to clone the image. By cloning the image we create a full identical copy of the, so called, master image.

To prevent us from having errors on our network because we have several copies of a virtual machine we have to sysprep the image.

Doubleclick on the icon Virtual Infrastructure client or Vsphere client.

Log on to the server where you have Virtual Center installed.

Select the computer you want to clone, and right click to get the menu. Then select clone. Vmware will now start a wizard.

Give the clone a name that will identify it for you. Then you have to select the datacenter where the clone needs to run.

Click next to continue.

Now you have to select the host where the new machine needs to run. Instead of what we would expect, you have no ability to clone it to the datacenter and let VMware decide which host may facilitate the image. I still find this a error in VMware and I would really want to see this as a standard option in the process.

Click next to continue.

Now you have to select the resourcepool where you want the Virtual Machine to run.

I select Vstorm-3 to identify the machine. Click next to continue.

Now you have to select the storage where you want the image to reside.

Click next to continue.

Next step is to select the sysprep file you need to customise your image. You also have the option to view the settings and add or remove things in the sysprep for this clone.

Click next to continue.

Now you see all the properties for the clone. You may select to boot the machine after the cloning, and you can also edit the hardware before the cloning is made, to change the memory or other pieces of the hardware. VMware says that this is experimental. In reality it works great. if you change the number of processors, be aware of the fact that this is not always supported in Microsoft operating systems. If your image is built with one processor and you replace the number of processors from 1 to 2, the operating system will give an error because it needs a dual processor HAL (hardware abstraction layer).

In the virtual center you see the process running in the bottom screen. This will take a certain amount of time depending the size of the image and the storage where you located the clone.

When the clone is done, the machine will start. The screen above is when you immediately logon to the machine. I only logged on to show the process. In reality you just wait and then the computer will reboot to get customised.

The computer will reboot again and then you see the screen above. This is the customisation process.

In the screen above you see that the image will be added to a workgroup named DinamiQs. You can also add the computer to the domain that you selected just by editing the sysprep file.

In the example above you see that you are able to clone one machine at a time. If you need hundred machines then you have to do this step 100 times.

In the next article I show you how to dynamically allocate these images to end-users by using VMware view.