how to clone a virtual machine under vmware vsphere 5:
- using the vsphere client create a new vm with similar parameters [at least the same number and size of hard drives]
- using the vsphere client create a snapshot of the original vm
- log in via ssh as root [ to enable the ssh access check this kb article ]
- go to the folder where new vm is stored and remove all vmdk files
cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/newVM #write down what are the names printed by command below ls -la *.vmdk rm -rf *.vmdk
- go to the folder with the original vm and for
cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/originalVM ls -la *.vmdk|grep -v flat
- each vmdk file [one that DOES NOT have -flat part in the name] execute
# for newvmname use the same names as displayed two steps ago vmkfstools -i oldvmname.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/newvm/newvmname.vmdk
- using the vsphere client remove a snapshot of the original vm
you’re done – you should be able to run the clone. it’ll have different mac address and you’ll have to configure again networking etc. snapshot created in this way will be crash-consistent. for some purposes it might be perfectly fine, for another – completely unacceptable.