A clone of a VM creates a copy of all vmdks that are attached to the VM - it does make no difference between a system-vmdk and a data-vmdk.
If you want to clone the system vmdk only use vmkfstools to clone the vmdk
________________________________________________ Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow" I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...