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Brad667
Contributor
Contributor
‎09-05-2017 12:27 AM

Can't find menu item in vSphere Web Client to create Instant Clone Parent

The section in the VMware vSphere 6.5 documentation entitled 'Convet a Virtual Machine to an Instant Clone Parent' (within vSphere Virtual Machine Administration -> Deploying Virtual Machines -> Instant Cloning to Multiple Virtual Machines) says to perform the following actions in vSphere Web Client to convert a VM into an Instant Clone Parent:

Procedure

  1. Right-click the virtual machine and select Clone > Convert to Instant Clone Parent.
  2. (Optional) : Select a parent pre-creation script file.
  3. Click Yes.

However the only menu items I see after right-clicking 'Clone' are 'Clone to Virtual Machine', 'Clone to Template' and 'Clone to Template in Library'.  I can't see the cited 'Convert to Instant Clone Parent'.

I'm logged in as 'administrator' and I'm running vSphere / ESXi 6.5.

A screenshot of my vSphere Web Client is attached.

Can anyone tell me why it's missing?  Thanks!

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parmarr
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
‎09-08-2017 05:20 AM

Hello,

Please do check that the virtual hardware compatibility of the parent virtual machine is ESXi 6.5 and later.

Sincerely, Rahul Parmar VMware Support Moderator
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Brad667
Contributor
Contributor
‎09-11-2017 10:08 PM

Hi parmarr -

>  Please do check that the virtual hardware compatibility of the parent virtual machine is ESXi 6.5 and later.

The vSphere Web Client tells me that the hypervisor is running 'VMware ESXI, 6.5.0, 5969303'.  It is a HP ProLiant DL380 G7.

However I think I see what you mean.

Even though the system is quite happily running ESXi 6.5 the VMware Compatibility Guide says that the highest 'supported release' for a ProLiant DL380 G7 is ESXi 6.0 U3.

Do you think, then, that vCenter Server is actually looking up the hardware compatibility of the hypervisor hardware on which it is running, seeing that it is not supported for ESXi 6.5 - even though it is running that version - and deliberately excising those options from the vSphere Web Client menu?  I've never come across software that ... pedantic ... before.  Typically if some feature is rated for version X and the software actually running is >= X then the feature will be presented, regardless of the actual hardware or what a compatibility guide might say.

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