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2 Replies Last post: Jun 1, 2009 3:59 PM by meistermn

Searching for indepentend "rapid cloning" tool for templates posted: Jun 1, 2009 8:01 AM

meistermn

1,159 posts since
Dec 7, 2004

Come across this nice video about netapp's rapid cloning tool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7lccBlE5cw&feature=channel_page

I like this tool, but what about an storage and server vendor independent "rapid cloning tool".

If you have 3 different storage vendors in house, than it makes sense to have an independent "rapid cloning tool".

I would like to see in this tool management of ip address and computernames.

Although the deployment of the template should not use pxe and dhcp ( dont like px/dhcp errors and configuring relay dhcp agents -> simplefy this process).

An onther point to replicate/rollout the golden template from the central location to the branch offices.

Re: Searching for indepentend "rapid cloning" tool for templates

1. Jun 1, 2009 8:13 AM

in response to: meistermn

lamw

2,803 posts since
Nov 27, 2007

Not sure if you're looking to deploy literally from VM templates or just a base image, but you can take a look at some of these cloning scripts, however they do not leverage the storage arrays like the "rapid cloning utilities" you may have seen from NetApp or EMC

Linked Clones script for ESX 3.x
Linked Clones script for ESXi
ghettoClone.sh - Automate cloning VM(s) for ESX/ESXi 3.5u2+ utilizing VMware VIMA: RCLI + VI Perl Toolkit
http://www.engr.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/vGhettoLinkedClone.html

I think with the new vStorage API's, you probably will see more vendor cloning utilities that will hook right into vCenter and since they're leveraging specific hardware, they'll will be vendor specific.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw

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