How to clone a VM from VMware ESXi

Cloning virtual machines on VMware ESXi

Translated from http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/vmware-esxi-clone-machine.html, skip the previous section.
Clone a VM from VMware ESXi
This example uses the VMware Infrastructure Client on windows, so linux users will be invited, but the idea is 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 the machine where ESXI is installed has no other software. This means that you cannot directly operate on the machine. Instead, you need to use the client to connect to ESXI for remote management.

At this point, ESXI is similar to connecting to vmware server from another machine. However, server allows the use of the local host network, while ESXI only allows communication with your client. The interface software is the Infrastructure Client, which is a free evaluation board, it will be used to manage your ESXI. Now let's start.




VMware ESXi has no local connection, so we need VMware Infrastructure Client (for ESXi ):



Now we connect to ESXI:




Step 2: Open the data storage
The VM is stored in the memory and the related folder is opened.



You will see a file like this:



You will see one active virtual machine file in the memory, which may be linux, windows or other versions. For this test, the actual name is meaningless.

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




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



Step 5: Register the cloned virtual machine
This is a key step. Unlike vmware server, it does not have the "File> open" option to browse the vmx configuration file and register them, so it seems helpless.

The answer lies in data storage. In the new folder, right-click the vmx configuration file and choose add to configuration.



This adds the virtual machine to the list. Now you can modify the configuration and edit the Virtual Machine name. Simple?

From kingdao blog