clone
Friday, May 20, 2011
Cloning virtual machine on vmware esx using vmware-cmd
Below are the steps:
1. List down all the virtual machines that you have
# /usr/bin/vmware-cmd -l
/vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/server-1/server-1.vmx
/vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/server-2/server-2.vmx
/vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/server-3/server-3.vmx
2. Shutdown the machine that you are going to clone. Let say the machine is server-1
# /usr/bin/vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/server-1/server-1.vmx stop
3. Use hard stop if you cannot stop it using above command
# /usr/bin/vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/server-1/server-1.vmx stop hard
4. Make sure the vm is shutdown by viewing the state
# /usr/bin/vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/server-1/server-1.vmx getstate
5. Copy the whole directory
# cp /vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/server-1/ /vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/newserver/
6. Once done, rename all the files to new name
# rename server-1 newserver /vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/newserver/*
7. Change all occurrence of “server-1” to “newserver” in .vmx, .vmdk and .vmxf
# cd /vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/newserver/
# sed -i ‘s/server-1/newserver/g’ {newserver.vmdk,newserver.vmx,newserver.vmxf}
8. Edit newserver.vmx file and remove below lines
ethernet0.generatedAddress = “…..”
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = “…..”
uuid.location = “…..”
uuid.bios = “…..”
9. Add below line to newserver.vmx
uuid.action = “keep”
10. Register your newly cloned virtual machine. Please use the full path to register as below
# vmware-cmd -s register /vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/newserver/newserver.vmx
11. Start your new vm after registration.
# /usr/bin/vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/47971de9-34657d96-8ac4-001d09068c0c/newserver/newserver.vmx start
