Go: How to Clone a virtual machine on VMware ESXi

Cloning virtual machines on VMware ESXi

Translate from http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/vmware-esxi-clone-machine.html, omit before and after explanation.
Cloning virtual machines in VMware ESXi
This demonstration was done using the VMware Infrastructure Client on Windows, so the Linux users were invited, but the idea was the same.

Step 1: Start the VMware Infrastructure Client
If you use ESXi, you will find that it is different from the server version because there is no other software for the ESXi machine. This means that you cannot operate directly on the machine, instead you need to use the client to connect to ESXi to manage it remotely.

At this point, ESXi is similar to connecting to VMware Server from another machine. However, the server edition is allowed to use the local host network, and ESXi only allows communication with your client connection software, which is the Infrastructure client, which is the free evaluation Board that he will use to manage your esxi. Now let's start.


VMware ESXi does not have a local connection, so we need VMware Infrastructure Client (for ESXi):


Now we're connected to ESXi:


Step 2: Open Data storage
The virtual machine is stored in memory and the relevant folder is opened.


You will see a file like this:


You will see a live multiple virtual machine file in the memory, they may be linux,windows or other version of the system. For our experiment, the actual name doesn't make any sense.

Step 3: Create destination Folder
Click the Yellow Folder button in the menu to create a folder and name it.


Step 4: Copy files
Copy the files with the. VMX and. vmdk extension from the source file to the folder you created, right-click to select "Copy" and "Paste" in the new folder. You can also copy the entire folder past, including ISO image files, and so on.


Step 5: Register the cloned VM register the cloned virtual machine
This is a key step. Unlike VMware Server, he doesn't have the "File > Open" option to browse the VMX profiles and register them, so it looks as if we're out of your wits.

The answer is in data memory. In the new folder, right-click the VMX profile and select "Add to Inventory" to do it.


This will add a good virtual machine to the manifest, and now you can modify the configuration to edit the virtual machine name. Simple, huh?

From the Golden Knife Blog

Go: How to Clone a virtual machine on VMware ESXi