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daKrisht
Contributor
Contributor
‎02-13-2009 04:58 PM

Best way to duplicate VMs

Hey everyone,

I need to install 4 duplicate copies of CentOS 5.2 on top of a VMWare ESXi 3.5 update 3 host.

What would be the easiest way to do this without having to painstakingly install each OS manually?

Thanks

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3 Replies
Neth66
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎02-13-2009 05:07 PM

I found the best way to do it is to use the VMware Converter. Otherwise, you could use the datastore browser in the VI client and copy the .vmdk files and then create a new VM that uses the copied vmdk as its disk.

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_David
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎02-13-2009 05:45 PM

If you have it connected to virtual center you could just make a clone. But i guess you dont have a VC?

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Lightbulb
Virtuoso
Virtuoso
‎02-13-2009 06:12 PM

1. Install one instance of Centos

2. Create three more VM "shells" with same hardware RAM CPU etc

3. Use vmkfstools -i to clone disks from already installed VM (Step 1). vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/datastore/VM/VM.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/datastore/NEWVM/NEWVM.vmdk

Message was edited by: Lightbulb Disregard ESXi. Sorry. shesh.

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