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ratease
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How to copy/clone a powered on VM without registering it?

Hi,

Is there any way (e.g. by PowerCLI etc.) that I can copy or clone a powered on VM from one datastore on our vCenter to another, without having the new copy/clone registered as a VM in the vCenter? I simply need an exact copy of a powered on VM, but without the trouble of having to Remove the copy from Inventory afterworths.

Thanks in advance,

Rasmus

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akkayyakapisett
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Go this way.

Take a snapshot of the VM.

Logon on to one of the ESXi where the VM is running and use

vmkfstools -i <<parent disk.vmdk >> -d thin <<dest.vmdk>> once done. Browse the datastore and download.

Venkat

http://www.peeradmin.com

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ratease
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...and by "exact copy" I mean file by file. So an export to .OVF won't do the trick.

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JarryG
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Maybe not the best solution, but if I needed this, I'd use ghettoVCB backup script. It makes snapshot, then copy of it and finally removes snapshot that is no more needed. VM can be running all the time. And on command line you can specify datastore where you want to have it saved.

_____________________________________________ If you found my answer useful please do *not* mark it as "correct" or "helpful". It is hard to pretend being noob with all those points! 😉
akkayyakapisett
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Go this way.

Take a snapshot of the VM.

Logon on to one of the ESXi where the VM is running and use

vmkfstools -i <<parent disk.vmdk >> -d thin <<dest.vmdk>> once done. Browse the datastore and download.

Venkat

http://www.peeradmin.com