Dealing with duplicate UUID.bios

[itguybri]

What are some common techniques for dealing with VMs that are cloned and the UUID.bios ends up duplicated?

[SaranshG]

To do this, you need to override the dublicated UUID value. Power off

the virtual machine and edit its configuration file (.vmx) to set the value of the UUID parameter. Use a text editor to edit the configuration file. The format for the line is:

uuid.bios =

The UUID value must be surrounded by quotation marks. A sample configuration line

looks like:

uuid.bios = "00 11 22 33 44 55 66 77-88 99 aa bb cc dd ee ff"

After adding this line to the configuration file, power on the virtual machine. The new UUID is used when the virtual machine boots.

[itguybri]

Yes - I am aware of all of this.

I am looking for an easier way, possibly a programatic way or a script way, or a way to do the cloning in the first place that would guarantee that this didn't happen.

Or a script to run after cloning to clean this up.

[SaranshG]

You can do any changes in the configuration of a Virtual machine using ReconfigVM_Task api. I'll send you the script soon.

Message was edited by:

SaranshG

[hrobinson]

By the way, during the cloning operation the uuid is blanked out.

The first time that the VM is powered up, a new uuid is assigned.

H

[itguybri]

When cloning a template - yes

When converting using the VMware converter - no

When cloning a virtual machine (not a template) - no

It takes a poweron and a poweroff to cause a unique uuid to be created (and then it still might not be unique, while the uuid.location will be).

It is close to what the documentation about uuid says, but through observation I noticed that we can easily create exceptions.