Sysprep documentation from MS
Using vmkfstools to clone a disk is documented in the man page of vmkfstools.
Here's an excerpt
NAME
vmkfstools - VMware ESX Server file system management tool
SYNOPSIS
vmkfstools OPTIONS
vmkfstools OPTIONS PARTITION
vmkfstools OPTIONS DEVICE
vmkfstools OPTIONS PATH
...
VIRTUAL DISK OPTIONS
-c, --createvirtualdisk #[gGmMkK]
-a, --adaptertype buslogic srcFile
-d, --diskformat zeroedthick
Create a virtual disk with the specified size on the VMFS file
system. The size is specified in bytes by default, but can be
specified in kilobytes, megabytes or gigabytes by adding a suffix
of ´k´, ´m´, or ´g´ respectively. The ´adaptertype´ option
allows users to indicate which device driver should be used to
communicate with the virtual disk. See the `SUPPORTED DISK
FORMATS` section for details on the disk formats supported by
the ´-d´ option. The default disk format is ´zeroedthick´. The
`-d eagerzeroedthick` option is used to create `thick` virtual
disk with zeroed out contents.
...
-i, --clonevirtualdisk srcDisk
-d, --diskformat rdm:<device>
Create a copy of a virtual disk or raw disk. The copy will be in
the specified disk format. See the `SUPPORTED DISK FORMATS´
section for details on the disk formats supported by the ´-d´
option. To clone ESX REDO logs while preserving their hierarchy, use
the Service Console command cp(1).
...
EXAMPLES
vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/templates/gold-master.vmdk /vmfs/vol-
umes/myVMFS/myOS.vmdk
Clones the contents of a gold master virtual disk image from a template
repository to a virtual disk named `myOS.vmdk` on the VMFS file system
called myVMFS. A virtual machine can be configured to use this virtual
disk by adding the following lines to its configuration file:
To get the complete man page execute "man vmkfstools" in the console.
After you've cloned the disk you only need to create a new VM.
When asked for the disk point it to the cloned disk instead of creating a new one.
