Clone an image of a VMware VM

Use these instructions to clone an image of a virtual machine.

  1. Click App Manager and select Applications from the drop-down list.

    The Applications page opens.

  2. Select the application with the image you want to clone, then choose Access from the pop-up list at the bottom right corner of the Applications page.

    The Access page opens listing backup images using the timeline ramp view. Image types that support clone creation include OnVault, snapshot, and remote snapshot—StreamSnap images.

  3. Select an image and then select Clone from the list of access operations.

    The Clone page opens.

  4. Enter a name for the VM that you want to clone in VM Name.

  5. Select a vCenter from the VCENTER drop-down for the VM you want to clone.

  6. Select an ESX host from the Choose Server drop-down where you want to clone the VM.

  7. Select a datastore from the Datastore drop-down that has the required storage available.

  8. If you need to change the volume provisioning for the clone image for space allocation of the image, specify one of the selections under Provisioning Type.

    • Original Setting: Default provisioning setting of the image.
    • Thin: A volume with a virtual capacity that differs from its real capacity—a logical capacity size that is larger than the actual physical capacity that is assigned to the volume.
    • Thick: A volume that uses a fully allocated—thick—amount of capacity that is zeroed out prior to new data being written.
    • Thick Lazy: A volume that uses a fully allocated—thick—amount of capacity, but only the used space is initially zeroed out. The remaining unallocated space is zeroed out during the first write to that space.

  9. Enter a unique name for the new clone in the Label field.

  10. Select a single volume or multiple volumes from Select Volumes To Clone. By default all volumes are selected, and the first volume cannot be deselected. For an individual file system there may be only one volume.

    Specify the Datastore and Provisioning Type for each volume you want to mount—see steps 9 and 10.

    A job is submitted to clone the image to the selected host.

    Once the clone job is complete, the image is not available in the Manage active mounts view of the App Manager as it is not dependent on the backup/recovery appliance. The new VM needs to be managed from the vSphere client.

The VMware administrator's guide