{"id":3575,"date":"2019-07-09T20:14:33","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T17:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/?p=3575"},"modified":"2019-07-09T20:14:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T17:14:34","slug":"how-to-clone-a-virtual-machine-on-vmware-esxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/how-to-clone-a-virtual-machine-on-vmware-esxi\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Clone a Virtual Machine on VMware ESXi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Having trouble with cloning a virtual machine in VMware ESXi? Worry no more. This guide will take you through how to clone a virtual machine on VMware ESXi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Clone a Virtual Machine on VMware ESXi<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To clone a virtual machine on VMware ESXi host, all you need to do is to copy all the <strong>*.vmdk<\/strong> and <strong>*.vmx<\/strong> files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, login to your ESXi host and open the datastore where your virtual machines are stored. To open the datastore, click on the hostname\/IP address of the VMware ESXi host and navigate to<strong> Configuration<\/strong> &gt; <strong>Storage<\/strong>. Right click on <strong>datastore<\/strong> and click <strong>browse datastore<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/open-vmware-datastore.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1261\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/open-vmware-datastore.png\" alt=\"Clone a Virtual Machine on VMware ESXi\" class=\"wp-image-3580\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/open-vmware-datastore.png 1261w, https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/open-vmware-datastore-768x207.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1261px) 100vw, 1261px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, create the directory for the new virtual machine clone. To create a directory, click on the datastore root directory and click the create new directory icon. In this demo, the clone VM directory is named, <strong>es-node-01-clone<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/create-new-vm-directory.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"885\" height=\"383\" src=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/create-new-vm-directory.png\" alt=\"create a directory to store new vm\" class=\"wp-image-3581\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/create-new-vm-directory.png 885w, https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/create-new-vm-directory-768x332.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 885px) 100vw, 885px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Poweroff the virtual machine that you want to clone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Select the Virtual machine you want to clone to open its directory storage. After that select and copy the <strong>*.vmdk<\/strong> and <strong>*.vmx<\/strong> files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/select-vmdk-vmx-files.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"648\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/select-vmdk-vmx-files.png\" alt=\"Select-vmdk-vmks-files\" class=\"wp-image-3582\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Open the new virtual machine directory (<strong>es-node-01-clone<\/strong>) and paste the file copied above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the copying is done, you need to register the cloned virtual machine. Hence, right on the <strong>.vmx<\/strong> file and click <strong>Add to Inventory<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/register-cloned-vm.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1261\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/register-cloned-vm.png\" alt=\"register-cloned-vmware-esxi-vm\" class=\"wp-image-3583\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/register-cloned-vm.png 1261w, https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/register-cloned-vm-768x207.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1261px) 100vw, 1261px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Set the name of the Cloned virtual machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/set-the-name-of-cloned-vm.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"708\" height=\"503\" src=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/set-the-name-of-cloned-vm.png\" alt=\"set -name-of-the-cloned-vm-vmware-esxi\" class=\"wp-image-3584\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On the  next step, select the resource pool on which you wish to run the virtual machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/select-resource-pool.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"703\" height=\"482\" src=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/select-resource-pool.png\" alt=\"vmware-esxi-resource-pool\" class=\"wp-image-3585\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On the next step, click finish to finalize the creation of a cloned virtual machine. You can now power on your cloned VM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you power it on, the VMware ESXi needs to know whether the VM was moved or copied in order to configure management and networking features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/copied-virtual-machine.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1011\" height=\"356\" src=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/copied-virtual-machine.png\" alt=\"vmware-esxi-copied-vm\" class=\"wp-image-3586\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/copied-virtual-machine.png 1011w, https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/copied-virtual-machine-768x270.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1011px) 100vw, 1011px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Since we did copy, select <strong>I Copied It<\/strong>. Press Ok to power on your cloned virtual machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And there you go. That is all on how to clone a virtual machine on VMware ESXi. Enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Related Tutorials;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/how-to-upload-iso-file-to-vmware-esxi-datastore-using-vsphere-client\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">How to Upload ISO File to VMware ESXi Datastore using vSphere Client<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having trouble with cloning a virtual machine in VMware ESXi? Worry no more. This guide will take you through how to clone a virtual machine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,36,208],"tags":[1027,1028,206],"class_list":["post-3575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-howtos","category-virtualization","category-vmware","tag-clone-vm","tag-esxi","tag-vmware-esxi","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3575"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3587,"href":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575\/revisions\/3587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}